What does 14K GF mean?

Answer 1

In the U.S., solid gold jewelry is marked with the purity and the hallmark (trademark) of the maker. So, for example, my wedding ring is marked "14K FG" which means it is 14 karat gold, made by Frederick Goldman, Inc. The maker's hallmark can usually be found by searching the US Patent and Trademark Office's trademark database (but the search will probably be tedious).

There is, however, an exception, and that is that "GF" is the standard abbreviation for "gold filled" which means it is a cheaper metal core coated with gold on the outside. In other words, it is not solid gold. It would be simply crazy for any jewelry maker to select the hallmark "GF" when that normally mean that it is not solid gold, so you can expect that anything marked "14K GF" is not solid gold, although it should also have an indication of the gold content, e.g. "1/20 14K GF" would mean that the gold coating is 14 karat gold, and is 1/20th of the total weight.