Gold and Silver Silver

Silver has attracted fascination for many thousands of years and because it has been found in limited quantity over the ages and while it scarce it is the most plentiful and cheapest of other metals. While silver is scarce, it is the most plentiful and least expensive of the precious metals with the largest silver producing countries being Mexico, Peru, the United States, Australia and Chile. Sources of silver include; silver mined directly, silver mined as a by-product of gold, copper, lead and zinc mining, and silver extracted from recycled materials, primarily used photographic materials. Today, silver stocks make up a significant component of silver supply.

Gold

Generally speaking pure gold [http://goldorsilverbuy.blogspot.com/] is used for investment more than decoration, as it tends to be quite vulnerable to scratching. Because of its malleable nature, gold it is usually mixed with other metals to hardens it and in some cases change its color. The most widely used alloys for jewelry in Europe are 18 and 14 carat, although 9 carat is popular in Britain. Portugal has a unique designation of 19.2 carats. In the United States, 14 carat is the most popular density, followed by 10 carat. In the Middle East, India and South East Asia, jewelry is traditionally 22 carat (sometimes even 23 carat). In China, Hong Kong and some other parts of Asia, chuk kam or pure gold jewelry of 990 fineness (almost 24 carat) is popular. The purity of gold is measure from 1 to 24. 24 karat (24K) is purest form of the metal. So when you hear 18k gold, it means 18/24 karat which is 75% of gold and 25% alloy. More alloy or lower karat in gold, gold becomes much stronger.

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