Gold Jewelry: How Much Is It Worth?
Article by Adam Zimmerman
07.19.2022
Whether the economy is up, down, or somewhere in between, the value of one type of investment seems immune from crash: gold. This is why gold jewelry, particularly antique gold jewelry, consistently appears on the resale market — and brings its seller a solid return.
That being said, if you are interested in presenting your gold to a jewelry store, antique specialist, or auction house, you will quickly find that figuring out a fair purchase price can be a daunting project.
Several factors combine to make an estimation of a gold piece’s worth so confusing. These include:
- What the various marks on the jewelry mean.
- The arcane and unusual system used to measure gold’s weight.
- Whether the piece is made of gold or merely gold-plated.
Fortunately, understanding some very simple concepts can make a determination of your gold’s worth much easier. Taking a few minutes to read the below should help you out a lot.
What Do Marks on Your Gold Mean?
Most gold jewelry, with very limited exceptions, you encounter will not be pure gold. How do you determine what percentage of your piece is gold, then?
The answer lies in the “mark,” a number inconspicuously engraved on the jewelry piece. Most of the time, the number engraved on the item identifies the percentage of the piece’s weight that is actually gold.
If an imaginary piece of solid gold were cut up into 24 equally-sized and weighted pieces, called “karat”, then this pure gold item would be called karat (24k) gold.”
If, say, only 10 of those 24 pieces (or 41.7%) were made of gold, the item would be called “10k” gold. Similarly, if 22 of the 24 pieces were made of gold, the item would be called “22k.” This pattern explains what is meant when gold is identified as having a certain number of karats.
It also helps explain the mark’s number on a piece of gold jewelry.
Keeping the karat system in mind, here are what some marks on your jewelry actually mean:
- 10k may be marked as 417 = 41.7% gold
- 14k may be marked as 585 = 58.5% gold
- 18k may be marked as 750 = 75% gold
The below are less common, but may still appear on some pieces:
- 9k may be marked as 375 = 37.5% gold (mostly seen on pre-20th Century jewelry)
- 22k may be marked as 916 = 91.6% gold (mostly seen on jewelry from India)
- 24k may be marked as 999 = 100% gold (mostly shown on coins, bullion and Chinese gold)
What Does My Gold Actually Weigh?
Gold
Parts:10
Alloys
Parts:14
Gold
Parts:14
Alloys
Parts:10
Gold
Parts:18
Alloys
Parts:6
Gold
Parts:22
Alloys
Parts:2
Gold
Parts:24
Alloys
Parts:0
The value of most gold jewelry is determined by the weight of the percentage of it that is gold (vs. the weight of the entire item).
Weights can be difficult to determine because you cannot weigh your items on a regular scale using ounces. When weighing metal, you need to weigh in Troy ounces (toz or ozt).
You can also weigh in grams (g) or pennyweights (dwt). The conversions to Troy ounces are:
- 20 dwt = 1 ozt
- 31.1 grams = 1 ozt
How Can I Calculate the Value of My Gold?
Using information above, once you know the current price of gold per Troy ounce (easily searchable online), calculating the value of your piece, based on its mark, should be straightforward.
Below, we will show the value of a gold piece, per troy ounce, of gold, assuming the gold price is $2800. 00.
The numbers were calculated by:
- Dividing the karat number by 24, then
- Multiplying the resulting number by 2800.
Using this formula, the value of the good in various pieces would be:
- 1 toz of 9k = 1050
- 1 toz of 10k = 1168
- 1 toz of 14k = 1638
- 1 toz of 18k = 2100
- 1 toz of 22k = 2565
- 1 toz of 24k = 2800
Of course these are only examples, and you might find a few other marks along the way. Some jewelry could be 8k or 15k. Some jewelry will have a punch mark on it that you will have to look up. However, the information above will address what you will see most often.
Also, the prices shown are the full value of the gold. However, in most cases, when you decide to sell, the buyer will keep a percentage of those numbers. Therefore, the offers you receive may vary between 80%-95% of the full price.
In addition, these prices do not consider the beauty of the jewelry or precious stones in the pieces. In particular, aesthetics rarely impact the value of a price of gold jewelry. When the gold price is as high as it is now, a lot of beautifully made pieces will unfortunately be valued and sold based on the weight alone.
Of course, exceptions to this rule exist, even if they are rare. For instance, if the jewelry were made by a well-known designer like Van Cleef , Cartier, Tiffany or others, the piece’s value would be higher than the weight of the gold alone.
Similarly, if the diamonds or other inlaid stones are large enough, or of good enough quality, you can sell the jewelry as, essentially, the equivalent of an artwork and not strictly for weight.
All this information is to help you better evaluate what you have before going to a professional. However, keep in mind even if your jewelry is marked, it could be fake. It may need to be tested by a professional to guarantee authenticity.
Is My Jewelry Gold … Or Something Else?
Some pieces that appear to be made of gold have marks that actually mean they are not made of gold. These marks could include:
hge – heavy gold electroplate (14k hge)
- hgp – heavy gold plate (14k hgp)
- rgp – rolled gold plate (14k rgp)
- gp – gold plated (14k gp)
- gf – gold filled (14k gf)
- 1/20 – only 5% gold (1/20 14k)
All these pieces have minimal to no gold value. They just have coverings of gold. By the way, the above are with 14k, but you may see versions of these marks with all karats (10k, 14k, 18k etc.)
We hope. this information helps you to accurately understand and evaluate your gold jewelry.
