Please help, need some advice in gold filled items

I don't have experience in gold filled items yet. The thing is that I can purchase the following forks and spoons. The stamp says 24ct goldfilled. As far as I understand does goldfilled mean that the weight of an item at least has to consist out of 1/20 gold of the total weight.
What door you guys think, is it safe to buy this as goldfilled?

archeonist said:

As far as I understand does goldfilled mean that the weight of an item at least has to consist out of 1/20 gold of the total weight.

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Well, that's what it would mean in the US, but I don't know what it might mean where you are. I believe in the UK, gold filled can be a lower percentage. It might be even less in other countries. I personally wouldn't feel comfortable buying flatware as gold filled.

I have never seen 24 kt gold filled. Again, only speaking of how things are in the US, gold filled is made with a layer of karat gold (usually 10K, 12K, or 14K), not 24K.

Dave

Where does it say 24K?

Good question palladium, I believe it is in the frist stamp but from this picture it's hard to read.

@Dave, thanks for your comment, I won't buy the item.

It kind of reminds me of the silver plated spoons that are stamped sterling! The spoons are only plated and the name of the company is sterling. If it say 24 kart gold i would bet it's only plated.

Dave in the U.K. we call it rolled gold and it is usually 1/10 or 1/20 9 karat and the retailer has the responsibility to ensure the item is as described.

"Goldfilled 24" is not goldfilled at all

I'm not sure what the first stamp says, but it looks like a maker's mark. Could be an assay mark, but I doubt it.

If you know the manufacturer, see where they're based. Then look up that country's laws on what constitutes "gold filled". Even after that, you can't be 100% sure the maker stamped their goods properly.

Thinking logically the forks would be stamped out of sheet which means the tines would have exposed base metals as would the edges of the spoons which I don't think would be too clever, so I'm guessing having read the latest U.K. hallmarking rules that these are going to be plated but someone is trying to give an impression of more gold than there is.

nickvc said:

Thinking logically the forks would be stamped out of sheet which means the tines would have exposed base metals as would the edges of the spoons which I don't think would be too clever, so I'm guessing having read the latest U.K. hallmarking rules that these are going to be plated but someone is trying to give an impression of more gold than there is.

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Good point, Nick. That's how they would have to be made. Gold filled starts as sheet - you don't coat it after forming it. In the best case, the gold would be stretched very thin on the side of the tines. That's why they don't use gold filled on flatware. I've been doing this a very long time and this is the only time I've ever seen any flatware marked gold filled. To me, the flatware looks pretty cheap. Like it's made in China or some other country that specializes in junk. I wouldn't touch it with a 10 foot pole.