Pure gold is very soft. So, it is often mixed with copper, silver or other metals to make it easier to work with. Of course, when you buy gold, you want to know how pure it is. You can check the purity of gold by seeing how many carats it is. A carat is the proportion of gold in an alloy.
Pure gold is always 24 carats, while most jewellery is made of 22 carat gold. If there is higher proportion of copper and silver, the gold may be 18, 14 or even 9 carat gold. Of course, the cheapest jewellery will be made up of 9 carat gold, and the most expensive of 22 carat gold, for the greater the amount of gold in the mixture, the more expensive it will be.
