The traditional engagement has always consisted of a man proposing marriage to a woman, offering her an engagement ring, and she either
accepts or not. If she accepts, she wears the ring and the man walks around with no jewelry to identify him as ‘taken’. Over the past several years, some European men have been wearing engagement bands, and the trend is slowly making its way into the United States.

Now, as engagements sometimes last a few years, more women want their future husbands to be marked as engaged, and men themselves
want to show that they are going to be married. Some brides-to-be think of it as sexist and unfair that they show that they are engaged, while men appear single until the day of the wedding itself. So the trend began. Now women are buying engagement bands for men, too.

This trend is ever growing, becoming more and more common worldwide. Now, many men are embracing the idea of wearing engagement bands, and many women are happy to see the playing field becoming more level.

It use to be that if a woman wanted to marry, she felt she had to wait until the object of her desire got around to proposing to her. Once she
decided she was ready, she had no choice but to hang on, wondering when and if he would ever pull out a ring and ask her to spend the rest of her life with him.

But these days, it is not uncommon for a woman to take matters into her own hands and pop the question herself. In a situation like that, what becomes of the tradition of the engagement ring? If the man accepts the proposal, is he then required to go out and purchase a ring for his fiancé? Maybe. But according to UK jeweler H Samuel, if a woman proposes to a man, she should also buy him an engagement ring.”The men’s engagement ring is a clear message to everyone that a man is going to be married and also works perfectly for civil partnerships,” says a spokesperson for the jeweler.

Is this just a clever idea by a jeweler to sell more rings? Possibly. But H Samuel says that more and more women have been requesting such a ring and they are only too happy to oblige.

While most men probably wouldn’t take issue with wearing a ring that indicates they are engaged, I think some might have a problem with what is supposed to happen after the wedding. Unlike a woman, who wears her engagement ring alongside her wedding ring, male engagement ring etiquette dictates that the man must move his ring to the other hand after the wedding. This means he is now wearing two rings. I don’t know about your husband, but most barely tolerate the one ring he is supposed to wear. There is no way he would wear two.

The word gold, used by itself, means all gold or 24 karat (24K) gold. Because 24K gold is soft, it’s usually mixed with other metals to increase its hardness and durability. If a piece of jewelry is not 24 karat gold, the karat quality should accompany any claim that the item is gold.

The karat quality marking tells you what proportion of gold is mixed with the other metals. Fourteen karat (14K) jewelry contains 14 parts of gold, mixed in throughout with 10 parts of base metal. The higher the karat rating, the higher the proportion of gold in the piece of jewelry.

Most jewelry is marked with its karat quality, although marking is not required by law. Near the karat quality mark, you should see the name of the U.S. registered trademark of the company that will stand behind the mark. The trademark may be in the form of a name, symbol or initials. If you don’t see a trademark accompanying a quality mark on a piece of jewelry, look for another piece.

Solid gold refers to an item made of any karat gold, if the inside of the item is not hollow. The proportion of gold in the piece of jewelry still is determined by the karat mark.

Jewelry can be plated with gold in a variety of ways. Gold plate refers to items that are either mechanically plated, electroplated, or plated by any other means with gold to a base metal. Eventually, gold plating wears away, but how soon will depend on how often the item is worn and how thick the plating is.

Gold-filled, gold overlay and rolled gold plate are terms used to describe jewelry that has a layer of at least 10 karat gold mechanically bonded to a base metal. If the jewelry is marked with one of these terms, the term or abbreviation should follow the karat quality of the gold used (for example, 14K Gold Overlay or 12K RGP). If the layer of karat gold is less than 1/20th of the total weight of the item, any marking must state the actual percentage of karat gold, such as 1/40 14K Gold Overlay.

Gold electroplate describes jewelry that has a layer (at least .175 microns thick) of a minimum of 10 karat gold deposited on a base metal by an electrolytic process. The terms gold flashed or gold washed describe products that have an extremely thin electroplating of gold (less than .175 microns thick). This will wear away more quickly than gold plate, gold-filled or gold electroplate.