10 facts about affordable gold or rhodium plaited jewellery that is suitable for both casual wear and for special occasions, and which does not have to be stored in a vault!

* A gemstone is a mineral that has been cut or faceted then polished, examples of gemstones are quartz, jasper, amethyst, Ruby and Malachite.

* Facets are flat faces on geometric shapes, that either occur naturally in crystalline structures or as in the case of gemstones are cut into them to improve their appearance. Faceting is usually applied to transparent gemstones.

* The Moh’s scale of mineral hardness characterises the scratch resistance of minerals through the ability of a harder material to scratch a softer one.

* Softer gemstones with a Moh’s hardness scale of less than 7 are easily scratched by dust and grit. On the Moh scale a window pane has a Moh scale rating of 5.5, whilst Quartz is 7, Topaz is 8, and Diamond is 10. In fact Diamond is fifteen times more harder than quartz.

* Rhodium is a hard silvery white and durable metal with a high reflectance. The reflective properties of Rhodium make it suitable for jewellery products.

* Rhodium flashing is known in the jewellery trade as the process of electroplating; whereby a white gold metal is placed in a rhodium salt solution and when an electrical current is passed through the metal the white gold is coated with a thin layer of rhodium. This process gives the rhodium plaited metal a highly reflective white surface.

* Rhodium has a Moh’s hardness of 6 compared to Silver and Gold that both have a Moh’s hardness of just 2.5.

* Cutting is usually applied to opaque gemstones that are impenetrable to visible light while faceting is mainly carried out on transparent gems. As softer gemstones are more readily scratched so they are shaped and polished in order to reduce any visible signs of scratching.