The Meaning of Carate / Knowledge / Jewelry Articles / Arbers.com

A luxurious jeweller's - We are all aware of the fact that first impression counts, and the saying refers not only to people but also to places. People will surely like a place which they find appealing and they will...
read more

Methamorphosis of a man - European cities are full of men, some of them completely ordinary, some of them follow the trends, others neglect fashion totally but there is a group of men who are not afraid to stand out from...
read more

Delayed payments - As a person having business activity, especially in wholesale, you are sometimes forced to face the fact that your customers tend to delay payments as much as possible. Surprised as you may be,...
read more

Jewellery Shop Furnishing - Polish producers offer a wide variety of furniture for jewellery shops: from basic palettes and stands to tables and free-standing glass cases. When deciding upon the set it is always good to...
read more

Glass imitations of amber - While visiting shopping malls in large cities we often come cross amber jewellery. At first sight we believe this is a real Baltic amber but lots of products are its imitations. This is because...
read more

The Meaning of Carate

Added: 2008-11-04 13:03:20

A word carat contains two meanings connected with jewelry. The article describes the meaning and history of a word carat.

On hearing a word carat the first association we make is a precious gem set in rings. However, it isn't the only meaning of this word. Actually, there are two meanings of the word 'carat'. Firstly, it is a unit of measurement used for precious stones and it is equal to 0.2g. Why this weight and not the other? It is directly connected with history, in the Middle East the stones were weighed by carob seed which weighed 0.2g. The system was reliable enough to become popular in the whole world. The second meaning of the word 'carat' refers to the purity of a gold alloy. Carat measures the amount of pure metal in one unit of its alloy. Till the end of 19th century the measure was given in carats. The calculation was simple, pure gold is 24-carat because it contains 100% of the metal, so one carat amounts to 1/24 unit of gold. The rest of the alloys are described according to the same rule, so 18-carat gold (18*1/24*1000=750). Surprisingly, 585 gold is the most popular in Poland whereas 750 gold and 333 gold are very popular on the markets of the whole world.