Is white gold still being made?

A. Fancy rings are not often made of 24K (pure) gold because it is very soft. They are made of materials like 12K gold (12 parts gold to 12 parts of other metals) or 14K gold (14 parts gold to 10 parts of other metals), etc. If these other metals are "bleaching metals" like nickel or palladium, then the alloy can be whitish in color rather than yellowish. That's what white gold is -- an alloy of gold and some white, bleaching, metals.

In the U.S., nickel has been the main white metal used for that purpose. Nickel metal may or may not be marginally carcinogenic, but lots of people are allergic to it. In Europe the white metal palladium is used instead of nickel, and some high quality manufacturers here use palladium for their white gold. Hopefully we'll see more U.S. suppliers switch to palladium.

But white gold is not brilliant, dazzling white, it is somewhat white. So, almost universally today, white gold is plated with rhodium--which is an absolutely brilliant reflective bright white color.

What you should have is a ring made of white gold that is an alloy of palladium and gold, and is a good white color, which should subsequently get a heavy high-quality plating of rhodium on it. What you apparently actually have is a yellow gold ring with a thin and low quality rhodium plating on it.

The contrast between white gold and rhodium is subtle, so that as high quality rhodium plating slowly wears, the fact that it is getting thin in spots is not dramatically evident. If rhodium is plated on top of yellow gold, as soon as there is a tiny thin spot, the contrast is startling and unacceptable. For that reason, rhodium plating yellow gold to make it white is not acceptable, and some people even consider it fradulent. Obviously, monthly replating of a wedding ring is ludicrous. Please invite the jeweler to explain their position here; meanwhile see our FAQ about rhodium plating and white gold.

Hi David.

The answers to your questions are in our FAQ, but to save the effort of having to go there:

1. Most white gold rings these days will have rhodium plating on top of the white gold. That is because rhodium plating offers a scintillating bling that can't be matched by plain white gold.
2. It's very hard to predict the time between replating since it depends on so many things, including the amount of wear, how white the underlying white gold is, and how high is the quality of the rhodium plating. But a couple of years would be more appropriate than a couple of months.
3. A ring that's been worn even a few months is likely to lack the high polish and bling of a newly polished and plated ring; but a couple of years between servicing strikes me as normal.

Regards,

A. I found this site to be extremely helpful and should answer your questions: www.finishing.com/rhodium.shtml. I just purchased a "white gold" ring and was told it was rhodium plated. I called them to make sure it was actually white gold underneath and not yellow or else I did not want it. It was white gold plated with rhodium. Judging from this article, if your ring is wearing that badly and turning your finger black, I would think it was not properly plated and take it to another jeweler for a second opinion: