What is this gold worth?
Three facts decide the metal value of any gold item: how much it weighs, how pure it is (the karat), and the current price of pure gold. Enter them and this calculator returns the melt value — the worth of the gold content itself — showing the weight in grams and troy ounces, the purity percentage, and the pure-gold content in grams. The karat comparison table underneath prices the same weight at every common karat, which is the fastest way to see why the hallmark matters so much.
Karat means twenty-fourths
Pure gold is 24 karat. Every karat below that is one twenty-fourth of alloy — other metals added for hardness and colour: 18k is 75% gold, 14k is 58.3%, 10k is 41.7%. Two weighing traps are handled for you: gold is traded in troy ounces (31.1035 g), not the kitchen avoirdupois ounce (28.35 g) — a 9% difference that quietly cheats the careless — and jewellers' pennyweight (dwt) is one twentieth of a troy ounce. The price field wants the price of pure gold per gram: take the headline price per troy ounce and divide by 31.1035 if that is the form you have. Prices move every trading day, so the field is yours to set; the default is an example, not a quote.
Melt value is not selling price
Melt value is what the metal would fetch refined and resold as bullion. A dealer buying your item must cover refining, risk and margin, so offers land below melt — typically 70–95% for scrap depending on the buyer — while fine jewellery may be worth more than melt to the right buyer because of craftsmanship and brand. Know the melt figure before any negotiation: it is the floor everything is measured from. The Scrap Gold Calculator models dealer payouts explicitly.
Worked example
10 grams of 24k gold at $130 per gram is worth $1,300. The same 10 grams in 14k contains only 5.83 g of pure gold — worth about $758.
How to use this calculator
- Weigh the item and enter the weight, choosing grams, troy ounces or pennyweight.
- Select the karat from the hallmark (24, 22, 18, 14 or 10).
- Set today's price of pure gold per gram.
- Read the melt value in the green panel and the karat comparison table below.
Reading a hallmark
Stamps like 750, 585 and 417 are karat in thousandths: 750 = 75% = 18k, 585 = 14k, 417 = 10k, 916 = 22k, 999 = pure. European jewellery is usually stamped this way rather than with a karat number. If an item is stamped "GP", "GF" or "HGE" it is plated or filled, not solid — its gold content is a small fraction of the weight and melt calculators do not apply.