It is the most common question we get, and it has a real answer — just not a single fixed number, because the gold market moves every day.
What does not move is the arithmetic. Learn it once and you can price your own jewelry any day of the week, and check anyone else’s offer while you are at it.
14K gold is 58.5% pure gold. So one gram of 14K contains 0.585 grams of pure gold.
To find the melt value of one gram of 14K:
(Gold spot price Ă· 31.103) Ă— 0.585
That gives you the pure gold content per gram of 14K at today’s price. Multiply by your item’s weight in grams and you have its melt value.
Karat is a fraction out of 24. 14 divided by 24 is 0.5833, which the industry rounds to the hallmark 585. The other 41.5% is alloy — usually copper, silver, nickel or zinc, added because pure gold is far too soft to survive daily wear as a ring or a clasp.
That alloy is what makes 14K durable, and it is also why 14K is the American default. It holds up.
Pure gold content in a 10-gram piece:
An 18K piece is worth about 28% more per gram than a 14K piece of identical weight. If you have both, that difference is worth knowing before you hand anything over.
Melt value is the ceiling. Your payout is a percentage of it, because the buyer still has to test, sort, transport, refine and assay the metal, and carries the price risk while doing it.
How large that percentage is depends mostly on lot size. A single ring earns a lower rate than a kilo of scrap, because the work involved is nearly identical either way. See our breakdown of how the gold price sets your payout for the full calculation.
A kitchen scale will get you close enough for a ballpark. A few cautions:
Make sure it is reading grams, not ounces — and if it does show ounces, those are standard ounces (28.349 g), not troy ounces (31.103 g). Mixing them up is a 10% error.
Weigh each karat separately. A pile containing 10K, 14K and 18K has no single value, and averaging it guarantees a wrong number.
Subtract what is not gold. Stones, steel spring clasps, watch movements and base-metal pins all add weight and no value.
Look for 14K, 14KT, 585 or 0.585 — usually inside a ring band, on a clasp, or on a small tag near a chain’s closure.
A stamp is a claim, not proof. Older, imported and handmade pieces are frequently unmarked and still perfectly real, which is why unmarked items get XRF tested rather than dismissed. And occasionally a stamp is simply wrong.
Watch for these, which are not solid gold: GP (gold plated), GF or 1/20 12K GF (gold filled), HGE, RGP, and vermeil (gold over sterling). None carry recoverable gold value at consumer quantities.
Gold is not magnetic. If a piece jumps to a magnet, there is base metal in it. A piece that ignores the magnet still needs a real test — plenty of non-magnetic metals are not gold — but it is a free thirty-second screen before you make the trip.
The arithmetic above gets you a ballpark. The precise figure needs the piece tested and weighed, which takes about ten minutes and costs nothing.
We buy 14K and every other karat at 30 West 47th Street, 9th Floor, in the Diamond District. Testing is free, there is no minimum, and no obligation to sell. Call 646-846-0401.
Free testing, live spot pricing, cash the same visit.