Gold Filled. Made by joining one or both sides of a metal strip of base alloy with a layer of gold then rolling or drawing to a thickness required. The gold may be of any karat fineness, the resulting metal is, of course, the color of gold. Expressed as a fraction, as 1/10th or 1/20th of the total thickness, such items made of gold filled metal are required by law to be marked with this fraction and its karat gold. Also it is usually marked GF, the abbreviation for gold filled. For numismatic items this is usually edge punched, or punched on the reverse of uniface items (it is almost never in the die). If the ratio of gold to the base alloy is less than 1/20th it is rolled gold. Like goldplating, both gold filled and rolled gold is an attempt to reduce the cost of the gold metal while retaining all the desirable qualities and color of gold. However, unlike goldplating – which is gold added after the apiece is formed – gold filled is gold added before the piece is fabricated. See goldplate, goldplating; rolled gold.