gold leaf

thin sheets of gold used for gilding

Gold leaf is gold that is beaten into extremely thin sheets. The thin gold sheets are commonly used for gilding. Gold leaf is available in a wide variety of karats and shades. 22-karat yellow gold is the most commonly used.Gold leaf is sometimes confused with metal leaf but they are different products. The term metal leaf is normally used for thin sheets of metal of any color that do not contain any real Karat gold. 24 Karats is pure gold. Real yellow gold leaf is about 92% pure gold. Silver colored white gold is approximately 50% pure gold.
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Metal leaf is a thin foil used for decoration. It is also called Composition leaf or Schlagmetal. Metal leaf can come in many different shades. Some metal leaf looks like gold leaf but does not contain any real gold; this is often referred to as imitation leaf.
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Noun
1. a very thin form of gold foil
(hypernym) gold foil
(substance-meronym) gold, Au, atomic number 79