Is gold a precious metal?

Gold belongs to the so-called precious metals, these are metals which are more resistant to acids and show almost no reaction with other materials. The gold which is used for jewellery is always an alloy of pure gold and another metal. By smelting fine gold with silver, copper, palladium or other metals, different colour tones are produced, from white gold through yellow gold to red gold. Pure gold is 24 carat. The term 'carat' here should not be confused with the 'carat' weight measurement used for diamonds. An 18-carat item of jewellery consists of 18/24 gold and 6/24 another metal. The more carats, the more precious the jewellery.

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