Vermeil is silver plated with gold. First choice for materials?
Gold filled is a sheet of gold bonded to another metal, no telling what the
metal is sometimes. Second best?
Gold plate is gold over brass usually, so least desireable of the three.

Gold filled doesn't wear through to the base material as fast as the others.
They do wear off. So gold filled is the best, IMO. However, it's hard to find
it in pretty pieces, as it's machine-made.
~~
Sooz
To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong. ~~Joseph Chilton
Pearce