A precious metal is a rare metallic chemical element of great economic value. The notion of precious metal is fluctuating according to times and civilizations depending on supply and demand: if we think today mainly of gold, silver, platinum, rhodium and palladium, it will be noted that these are not necessarily the most expensive nor those which have always been the most appreciated by all peoples.

• Gold

The gold used to make Thibault jewelry is 750/1000 (formerly called 18 carats) and made from 100% Eco-responsible recycled gold by RJC environmentally friendly refineries. Gold mining is one of the most polluting and destructive in nature. Recycled gold makes it possible to infinitely refine already mined gold, like old jewelry that people no longer want to wear. They will therefore sell them to shops specializing in the purchase of gold which themselves will sell them to these RJC refineries, which will put the recycled gold back on the market without a single gram of gold having been extracted. in nature. A real virtuous circle!

Fine gold, i.e. 99.99% pure, is a metal with a golden yellow color. Too malleable, fine gold is very rarely used in jewelry. It is then mainly combined with copper, silver to make it more pleasant to work with and to give it different colors such as lemon yellow gold, Champagne yellow gold, pink gold, white gold, ... and even mixing fine gold and silver results in green gold!
Combining fine gold with other metals will decrease the percentage of fine gold in the alloy; the most common alloys, referred to as "title" are 18 karat, and 14 karat and 9 karat gold alloys. Today we have to rename "18 karat gold" to "750/1000 gold" because it contains 75% fine gold in the alloy, "14 karat gold" to "585/1000 gold" because it contains 58.5% fine gold in the alloy and "9 carat gold" by "gold 375/1000" because it contains 37.5% fine gold in the alloy.
The oldest gold jewelry discovered to date dates from the 5^th Millenium BC in Bulgaria, in the necropolis of Varna.

Fun Facts:

• The melting point of fine gold is 1064°C

• Even the human body contains gold. A small amount, about 0.2 mg, but still!

• Gold is very ductile, so it can be stretched very easily. With 1 gram of gold you can make a thread 2 kilometers long

• Fine gold is also very malleable. It's so soft you'll be able to score a fine gold coin with your teeth if you bite into it. Just like in the westerns!

• King Midas gets Dionysus to turn everything he touches into gold, including anything he wishes to eat or drink. Hungry and thirsty he begs Dionysus to cancel this gift. This one tells him to bathe in the Pactolus river which cancels this gift and is loaded with gold. Hence the phrase "hit the jackpot"

• Croesus is the last king of Lydia, the region where the Pactolus river is located, which since the bath of Midas is full of gold flakes. Here is the origin of the expression "rich as Croesus"

• Pyrite is also called "fool's gold" because of its yellow color resembling that of gold. This feature has fooled unskilled gold prospectors into believing they have discovered gold nuggets.

• Money

Silver is a shiny white metal The etymology of the word silver comes from the Sanskrit “ar-jun” meaning shiny. This precious metal is very ductile and malleable, it is used pure to strike coins or in the manufacture of goldsmith's pieces.

There are 2 main alloys, also called "titles" or "alois" that are used for jewelry making. 835/1000 silver which contains 83.5% pure silver and 16.5% pure copper, and 925/1000 silver, also called Sterling silver which contains 92.5% pure silver and 7, 5% pure copper.

Mexico is the biggest extractor of silver with 3 main deposits in the Mexico City region, the Sierra Madre and in the Mapuni desert.

Fun Facts:

• The melting point of fine silver is 960.5°C

• In everyday language we say that silver oxidizes. In fact, it reacts with sulfur present in the air and not with oxygen. It should therefore rather be said that money sulphurizes.

• Melted Silver Air Absorption

• The term "to have silver" comes from the fact that the metal silver was rarer than copper but less than gold, the latter not being abundant enough for everyone to have "l 'money'

• Using a chemical process, a thin layer of silver is deposited to make mirrors, CDs and even Christmas decorations.

• Silver is the most conductive metal of heat and electricity, but for cost reasons copper is used instead to make electrical wires.

• Platinum

Platinum is the third precious metal used in jewelry. It is the densest of the three. It is white in color and does not oxidize. It is malleable so scratches more easily than gold, it must often be re-polished, about once a year for a ring that is worn daily.
To make it more pleasant to work with, it is alloyed with pure copper. There are 3 main alloys or otherwise called "titles". There is platinum 850/1000, platinum 900/1000 and the more commonly used platinum 950/1000 which contain 85%, 90%, 95% pure platinum and the rest copper respectively.
Thanks to the evolution of manufacturing techniques in jewelry in the 1930s, platinum was the flagship metal of the Art Deco style.

Fun Facts:

• The melting point of platinum is 1772 degrees

• When you want to extract it from its natural environment, platinum is always associated with 5 other metals. Ruthenium, rhodium, palladium, osmium, iridium are among the platinum group metals. They are equally rare, and rhodium and palladium are also used in jewelry.

• Platinum is "chemist's gold". Previously, chemists had wedding rings made of platinum because gold in contact with mercury creates an amalgam, which makes it brittle and impossible to wear. Chemistry techniques having evolved well, contemporary chemists are no longer in direct contact with mercury and therefore have the pleasure of being able to wear yellow or pink gold.

In France, the marking of gold jewelery has been compulsory since November 9, 1797 by affixing the "State hallmark" (unless the object is too small to receive the hallmark) which certifies the "title" of the jewel This stamp is affixed by one of the customs services, called Guarantee..