To keep the price of their jewelry down, jewelers developed processes to make Precious Metal jewelry using minimum amounts of the precious metals. These processes are known as “Filled” and “Plated” metals. Usually, the whole piece is created from plated or fill metals (chain, etc.), but there are occasions when it can be only one component (clasp, etc.) Below are descriptions of these processes.

PLATED AND FILLED METALS

Gold or Silver electroplated items are created by placing the object in a precious metal solution and passing an electric current through the piece and the solution. Thus depositing a very thin layer of precious metal on the object. Multiple layers of precious metal can be deposited on the object.

If protected, the plating on a piece of jewelry created from plated metals can last through a season, and even a few years, but in time the metal parts will oxidize and/or the plating can chip off.

The quality of Filled metals is much higher and longer lasting than plated metals, and they are second only to precious metal alloys. They have one or more layers of precious metal alloy mechanically bonded to a base metal, such as brass.

Gold Filled rods and wires are created by filling a tube of solid Gold alloy with brass, mechanically bonding them together, and then drawn to size. Gold Filled sheets, with 2 sides exposed, are created by mechanically bonding a sheet of solid karat Gold to each side of a brass sheet, and then rolled and cut to size. Where as, Gold Filled sheets, with only 1 side exposed, are created by mechanically bonding 2 sheets of solid karat Gold to one side of a brass sheet, and then rolled and cut to size.

Gold, Silver, and Platinum Filled metal must be at least 1/20th precious metal by weight. They are usually quality stamped with marks similar to the following: GOLD FILLED; 12k GF; 12k/20; 14k GF; 14k/20; 14k GOLD FILLED; Sterling Filled; etc.

Below is a listing of methods for bonding precious metals to cheap base metals. They are arranged from lowest quality to highest.