Stunning Lapel Pins and Award Jewelry in Gold and Silver

The Excellence line uses a die-striking process to make our jewelry (not casting). For example, the coins in your purse are die struck, the same way many cheap metal toys are cast. Die striking, as compared to casting, gives you more detail, a finer finish and the ability to cost-effectively do small quantities.

In most cases the item is struck several times. This creates more detail and clarity to the design of the pin or other jewelry piece.

If an item is Silver Plated, we stamp the item in white nickel and do no plating. This results in a finished product that will last forever with the look of silver.

When jewelry is Sterling Silver, there is 92.5% silver. This gives you the perfect blend of hardness and beauty.

If an item is Gold Plated, we stamp the item in bronze or copper, then copper plate it, then nickel plate it and finally gold plate it. Gold plating looks very nice, but in order to give the lowest possible sale price, the coating must be kept quite thin. Therefore, it is possible to see wear after a year or so.

Gold filled - If you are hoping to keep the cost down, but want a product that will be durable for many years, you might choose gold filled. Jewelry that is gold filled uses more gold than gold plated. The process uses high heat and pressure to bond the gold to a base metal such as sterling silver or brass. This is our most popular metal for pins, and other award jewelry

10k Gold - For a very durable product you may want to choose 10k gold. Any gold that is less than 24k is mixed with alloys to provide a lower cost final product. Some of these alloys actually produce a more durable result, as 24k gold is quite soft, making the final product more susceptible to being scratched or bent.

10k gold is 41.7% gold. Lapel Pins and other award jewelry made from 10k gold will last a lifetime and look very similar to 14k gold.

14k Gold - In this case you have 58.5% gold. This is the most common gold used in retail jewelry, as it is beautiful, long lasting, durable, and works well for almost any jewelry item.

We can make the same item in gold plate, silver plate, bronze plate, 10k single gold filled, 10k gold, 14k gold or sterling silver. This means that once we have your die, it is possible to do short runs in various metals in order to differentiate the value of the award.

In other words, you might give someone who has worked for the company a sterling silver pin after one year, a gold plated after five years, a 14k gold after 10 years, and a 14k gold with a diamond after 25 years.

We also do hard-fired French quality vitreous enameling and synthetic and genuine stone setting.