Introduction. During the Cuban Missile Crisis, leaders of the U.S. and the Soviet Union engaged in a tense, 13-day political and military standoff in October 1962 over the installation of nuclear-armed Soviet missiles on Cuba, just 90 miles from U.S. shores.
Base Metal. Base metal is a jewelry industry term for nonprecious metals used in costume jewelry, including copper, aluminum, brass, nickel silver, pewter and white metal, also called pot metal. Nickel silver is a silvery-white alloy resembling silver made from nickel, zinc, copper, iron, manganese and sometimes lead.nlike fine jewelry, costume jewelry is made from nonprecious metals called base metals. Most of these are both beautiful and relatively benign. However, nickel can cause an allergic reaction, while the lead found in some alloys has been linked to far more serious conditions and is highly regulated.
The yellow gold used in jewelry is made in the same way, and the difference is only in the mixture of the additional metals used. For example, white gold has more zinc, whereas yellow gold usually contains more nickel. Regardless of what metals are added to the gold alloy, its purity is measured in the same way.For example, if a gold ring is 18 karats, this means that out of a maximum of 24 parts, 18 parts are pure gold and the rest is something else.egardless of what metals are added to the gold alloy, its purity is measured in the same way. For example, if a gold ring is 18 karats, this means that out of a maximum of 24 parts, 18 parts are pure gold and the rest is something else.