5 minute read
What 950 platinum means
950 is the hallmark for a ring that is 95% platinum. It is the standard for wedding and engagement rings in Britain, and the reasons it is 950 rather than 999 are the same reasons it makes a good ring.
950 means 950 parts in every thousand
A UK hallmark states purity as parts per thousand. 950 inside a ring means 95% of the metal by weight is platinum and the other 5% is a small amount of other metals that make it workable. It is a minimum: an assay office has tested the ring and found at least that much platinum before striking the mark.
So "platinum 950", "950 platinum" and "Pt950" are three ways of writing the same thing. When a British jeweller sells a platinum wedding ring without saying otherwise, 950 is almost always what they mean, because it is the fineness rings are made in here. Platinum below 0.5g is exempt from hallmarking; every wedding ring is well above that, so a platinum ring sold in Britain carries the mark.
Platinum 950 against 999
999 is as close to pure platinum as the trade gets. It is what bullion bars are made of, and it is too soft to keep its shape as a ring worn every day: claws would bend, edges would round over and the band would distort. The 5% of other metal in 950 is what gives the ring its working hardness without making it any less white.
That makes the question "is 999 better than 950" a little like asking whether flour is better than bread. For a ring, 950 is the useful form of the metal. The higher number belongs on a bar in a vault, not on a hand.
Is 950 platinum good for a wedding ring?
Yes, and for a few reasons that matter more than the purity figure. It is naturally white, so it never needs the rhodium plating that white gold relies on to look white, and there is no yellow showing through as a plating wears. It is hypoallergenic. And it is dense: the 950 alloy in our weight model is about 20.1 grams per cubic centimetre, against 15.7 for 18ct yellow gold, so a platinum ring has a settled weight that people notice the moment they put it on.
It also wears in its own way. Platinum is softer than you might expect, about 4.5 on the Mohs scale, and a scratch on it moves metal aside rather than removing it. Over time the polished surface turns to a soft satin patina. Some people love that look and keep it; others have the ring polished back. Either way the metal is still there, which is why platinum is the traditional choice for holding a diamond.
Platinum 950 against 18ct gold
Gold's purity works on a different scale. 18ct is 75% gold, marked 750, and 9ct is 37.5%, marked 375. Platinum 950 is purer than either, and it is heavier: the same ring in platinum weighs about a quarter more than in 18ct gold, and about 1.8 times as much as in 9ct.
Price used to settle the question, and it no longer does. At the gold prices of 2026, upgrading one of our diamond rings from 9ct to platinum 950 costs less than upgrading it to 18ct gold, because the price of gold has risen further than the price of platinum. For the first time in a generation, the white metal that never needs replating is not the expensive choice.
There is no 950 gold
If you have seen "950 gold" or "gold 950", it is a confusion of two marks. Gold is hallmarked at 375, 585, 750, 916, 990 and 999. 950 is a mark for platinum and for palladium, which is sold at the same fineness. A ring stamped 950 is one of those two white metals, never gold. Palladium 950 looks very like platinum but weighs a little over half as much, at about 12 grams per cubic centimetre in the same model.
The hallmark decoder below reads a mark for you, including the symbol that tells platinum from palladium.
Mentioned: platinum 950, palladium 950, 18ct gold.
