White Gold Promise Ring, White Gold Turning Yellow

Q: Today I got my wedding band polished at a mall kiosk. It is 18k white gold, or shall I say it was. Now it has a yellow gold tone to it. I didn't notice it until I got home or I would have said something at the mall but now I don't trust them to fix it. Is this a result of some chemical they used or a flaw in the white gold itself?

A: After reading your original post again - it appears that I assumed the wrong info. 18K white gold shouldn't have this problem (from my limited reading on the subject) and it *could* be that your ring was under-karated. You should go to a *third* independent jeweler to check. If, in fact, you paid for 18K but only received 14K gold, you may have to check with your local consumer protection agency for further instructions. I hope this isn't the case, but you might want to check, anyways. That's simply not true. My mother's engagement ring is white gold and she's had it for nearly 40 years. It's still white and she polishes regularly. I think there's a difference between the quality of the gold or something else about the gold that makes it change color. My white gold engagement ring is about 45 years old, and is still white. My understanding is that white gold is indeed an alloy of yellow gold and... is it silver? I don't know. Some kind of pale precious metal. At any rate, plating is not how yellow gold is turned white. Perhaps the OP has a ring that is yellow gold plated in white gold, which might indeed turn yellow as the plating wears through. if that is the case, she may have it re-plated to restore the color. If the ring is (supposed to be) solid white gold (eg, an alloy), it should not be turning yellow. I agree with JB. Take it back to the jeweler where you bought it and see what kind of explanation s/he can give you. There appears to be some confusion about what white gold can be. There are two types of white gold. One is an alloy of yellow gold and nickel/silver/palladium.[1] If held next to yellow gold, this appears white in comparison. If held next to platinum or silver, it appears slightly yellowish. This will not fade, as the color runs throughout the metal. In order to make a white gold that matches the white brilliance of platinum, jewelers coat standard white gold with Rhodium. This is quite common. If you get white gold that looks like platinum when held side by side, it has been coated with rhodium. This will fade, as the rhodium coating wears off. When that happens, the actual white gold underneath will shine through. It is possible to replate white gold to regain that sparkle of new rhodium. If you read what this jeweler wrote, you'd see that he states there tends to be less nickel in modern white gold than in older white gold jewerly and that's why he believes that older white gold pieces don't have this yellowing problem. Anyway, my point was the share the experience not to start a debate about who is right and who isn't. If you search the archieves of this group, you will find a few posts from people who have had their white gold yellow so I thought I'd share what I learned.

White Gold Promise Ring, White Gold Turning Yellow

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