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Our Recycled Precious Metals

Metal Guide

Conscious fine jewellery starts with sustainable materials. At Sacet, we only work with recycled precious metals to reduce our impact on the environment.

Gold

White, yellow or rose gold? While each one has its own distinctive appeal, ultimately the colour you choose is all down to your personal preference. Here’s what you need to know about each one.

White Gold

Elegant and timeless, white gold is a popular choice for engagement rings. It has a cool tone that complements diamonds perfectly, reflecting the light back up to amplify their brilliance. Because gold is naturally yellow, it has to be mixed with other metals to create white gold and then plated with a rhodium coating for a brighter shine. We recommend having white gold jewellery replated regularly to maintain its lustre.

Yellow Gold

Yellow gold is the classic precious metal – this rich, warm tone is the natural colour of pure gold. However, it still has to be alloyed with other metals before being made into fine jewellery. That’s because pure gold is a very soft metal that can easily be bent out of shape; it’s not practical for everyday wear in its pure form. Yellow gold is therefore mixed with other metals to make it more durable, while preserving the colour we all know and love.

Rose Gold

Rose gold has a romantic, vintage aesthetic that looks wonderful in a wedding or engagement ring. Like white and yellow gold, it’s alloyed with other metals to make it more hard-wearing. In the case of rose gold, adding copper to the mix creates the warm blush tone that makes it so distinctive. You may see subtle variations of rose gold, as the depth of colour depends on the amount of copper it contains.

Understanding Gold Quality

Caratage measures the purity of gold. Because gold is naturally very soft, it has to be alloyed with other metals such as silver, zinc, copper or palladium before it can be made into jewellery. The highest level of purity is 24 carat (24k) gold, which has no other metals in the mix. At Sacet, we offer two different options: 9k gold and 18k gold.

9k Gold

Our 9k gold contains 37.5% pure gold, which is mixed with different metals depending on its colour. The minimum legal standard for gold jewellery in the UK, 9k gold is the most affordable gold option, and also makes a durable choice for everyday wear.

18k Gold

Containing 75% pure gold, 18k gold has a higher level of purity than our 9k option. At this purity, gold has a richer and more vibrant colour than lower carats, but as there is less alloy in the mix, the metal will be a little softer. Our 18k gold is a great option for special occasion jewellery.

Platinum

Platinum is a bright, white metal with a beautiful shine. Thirty times rarer than gold, it will always be a special choice for wedding and engagement rings. Unlike gold, it doesn’t need to be mixed with a large amount of other metals before it’s suitable for fine jewellery: the platinum we use at Sacet contains 95% pure platinum. It’s also hypoallergenic.

When it comes to durability, platinum is hard to beat. The strongest precious metal, it’s naturally white in colour and therefore doesn’t need any extra plating to bring out its lustre. And it only gets better with age. Over time, platinum can develop a patina that simply adds to its charm.

Silver

At Sacet, many of our pieces are available in sterling silver – a precious metal that’s more affordable than gold or platinum. Sterling silver is an alloy that contains 92.5 parts silver and 7.5 parts other metals, usually zinc and copper, and can be identified by the numbers 925 on the hallmark.

Hallmarks and Metal Guide

When you buy a piece of fine jewellery, it will come with a hallmark: a set of marks that guarantees the purity of the metal and tells you what the piece is made from, where it was hallmarked and who sent it for hallmarking. 


At Sacet, the precious metals we use are sterling silver, 9k gold, 18k gold and platinum. These correspond to the following hallmarking numbers:

925 (sterling silver)

375 (9k gold)

750 (18k gold)

950 (platinum)

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