1. Field of The Invention
This invention relates to the manufacture of hitherto nonexistent durable and beautiful investment quality gold articles and adornments of extremely high purity, yet capable of being worn and otherwise used.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Known and highly valued from the earliest times, gold is the most malleable and ductile metal. One ounce (28 g) can be pounded to provide 300 ft.sup.2 (28 m.sup.2) of gold leaf with which to adorn large pieces of artwork or architecture or drawn into 60 miles (97 km) of wire.
It is well known that gold has to be alloyed for strength. Steel and other metal objects can be gold plated, but as an investment, these objects are worthless. Gold alloys are used to produce wearable gold articles. Sometimes gold alloys are laminated to produce a beautiful piece of jewelry of a desired grade of purity on its outer shell, but containing a filler of much lower value.
Burdon, U.S. Pat. No. 440,693, describes a method of manufacturing seamless compound gold wire which can be molded into articles of jewelry and sold as gold of a specified value or karat purity. This value represents the average of the higher content gold shell and the lower content internal filler. Articles produced by Burdon's method still suffer from low purity and lack of uniformity when considering jewelry as an investment, averaging around 9 karat purity. Furthermore, the consumer is not readily able to ascertain the gold content of the entire piece, and abuses have been common.
Fry, U.S. Pat. No. 1,704,126, describes a process whereby a thin layer of platinum is laminated to a surface of gold alloy stock which comprises a softer inner gold-copper alloy layer, which is workable with jeweler's tools, and a gold-nickel outer layer, which possesses good color. To achieve a 14 karat purity average value for the gold stock, Fry uses a thick inner layer of 13.5 karat purity gold-copper alloy, and a thin layer of 20 karat purity gold-copper nickel. To obtain a 14 karat purity average value, Fry does little more than plate the core with the finer alloy, the ratio being approximately 21:1. While the outer coating prevents tarnishing and imparts a beautiful color, the concept still does not relate to producing quality gold jewelry.
What is needed is a method of producing gold articles which have the luxurious appearance and extreme fineness of nearly pure gold, and the strength to be wearable or otherwise useable. To be of investment quality, such articles must also be readily appraisable. If only it were possible to construct durable articles of nearly solid gold. The present disclosure presents a solution. Described herein is a method of manufacturing durable beautiful investment quality, wearable and otherwise useable gold articles with a hitherto unavailable troy weight of 22 karat purity or more.