12K GF Yellow Gold Filled Mini Beveled Christian Faith Cross Charm - 0.6 Inch

This 12K yellow gold filled cross charm is small and cleanly made, with a stepped profile across the front. Each arm carries a raised center panel with a narrow channel running down either side of it, so a second cross outline reads inside the first. All four tips are cut back at an angle, and those cut faces catch light at the ends of each arm. The reverse is flat and carries the marks.

The back is stamped 12K G.F. Gold filled is a bonded construction - a layer of karat gold is fused to a core under heat and pressure, and United States law requires that gold layer to be at least one twentieth of the item's total weight before a piece can carry the gold filled designation. 12K is one of the two karats most commonly used for gold filled in American manufacturing.

This is a charm and it is sized like one, meant to clip onto a charm bracelet alongside other pieces or to join a collection of religious charms.

DETAILS
Metal: 12K Yellow Gold Filled
Hallmarks: 12K G.F. and a small maker's mark
Design: Stepped cross profile with angle cut tips
Bail: Round jump ring
Length: 0.6 Inch
Condition: Excellent estate condition

FUN FACTS
Gold filled is not a surface treatment. A sheet of karat gold is bonded to a base core under heat and pressure, and under the FTC's jewelry guides at 16 CFR Part 23 the gold layer has to make up at least one twentieth of the piece's total weight before it can legally be called gold filled. That is a specific, enforceable standard, and the 12K G.F. stamp on the back is the manufacturer committing to it.

12K is an odd karat to see stamped on anything, and that is what makes this mark interesting. Twelve karat is exactly half gold - 12 parts out of 24 - and it is almost never used for solid gold jewelry in the United States, where 10K, 14K and 18K are the commercial standards. It survives in two places: gold filled work like this, and the 12K green and rose gold leaves used on Black Hills Gold. If you see 12K on a piece, it is nearly always telling you something about how it was made.