Karat Gold: The Complete Guide for Buyers Investing on Gold (2024)

This guide will teach you everything you need to know about karat gold.

Actionable advice if you want to start investing in Gold.

Easy steps on how you can check the purity of gold.

And how you can calculate the monetary price of your gold items.

If you are an investor or you are selling luxury jewellery,

you will enjoy this actionable guide.

Let’s start.

Gold is a precious element that people use to make different jewellery and luxury items. You could find gold objects with a mix of colours, features, and purity levels.

Gold Karat is a mark that indicates and measures the purity of gold inside a specific item.

If you are interested in buying luxury jewellery or want to invest in gold, you should know how to check the purity of your items.

The more purity of gold an item has, the more value it will have on the market.

That is the reason why you should always double-check so that you can make a wise decision on the buying or selling process.

This type of gold represents “pure of gold” which is 99,9% Gold material. As you can understand, it is the purest category of Karat gold and means that it doesn’t have other materials inside the item.

This type of gold is soft and malleable, which means that you can modify the form by slight pressure.

It is not common to make jewellery or any other commercial material, but it is usual to find it as an investment item (bars, bullion and coins).

So if you are looking to invest in Gold, this is the karat weight that you will need to purchase.

22 K represents 91,67% of gold inside your jewellery or items; the other materials are usually silver, copper or other metals.

Because of the mix with other materials, this type of gold is less malleable than 24 K, which makes jewellery stronger and more durable.

It is popular to make coins or investment items with this type of purity. Just be careful, it is known that sometimes in Asia people sell this type of jewellery or items under 91,67% gold.

If you are interested in making jewellery on white or rose gold, be aware that because 22K and 24k have a significant percentage of gold, these items are always yellow. That means you will not find white or rose gold on 22k.

It is common to find luxury and fine jewellery with 18K representing 75% purity of gold, and the rest are other precious metals.

What other material?

Well, it depends on the colour and features that you want in your jewellery. The redder the gold jewellery, the higher the copper content. The whiter the gold jewellery, the higher the silver content.

Overall, this type of jewellery is a great choice if you are looking for a luxury gift for yourself or someone else. It has a high percentage of gold purity so it can be expensive and is not very durable.

Because this type of jewellery has only 50 % gold, it is common to find it in retail stores at affordable prices.

If you are looking for affordable and durable jewellery with a high percentage of gold inside, it should be your best choice.

Big branding companies like Michael Hills use this type of jewellery, which is relatively cheaper than 18K.

On the resale of this jewellery, you will understand that sometimes with big brands, you pay for the name and not so much for the quality.

That is the reason why we recommend you to compare quotes with local jewellers and other online options. Be aware that with big brands, you will pay 50% or 60 % more.

Jewellery made by 9K has 37,5 % gold inside the item, and jewellers create it with a mix of other precious metals. Because of that, this type of jewellery is more affordable and durable than the others.

Brands and jewellers mass produce jewellery with 9K, making it not unique and less luxurious than the other karats.

If you want to buy jewellery and you have limited resources, this should be your best option.

On the other hand, cultures like Australia prefer to wear jewellery with a light yellow colour, making it more attractive.

Be careful of the scams in this industry!

We highly recommend you to check the purity of your items with at least 2 ways that we will explain to you in this article.

There is a high possibility that when a jeweller or any organization is making jewellery or any gold investment item, they will mark it with the international mark system.

In the pictures below, you can notice that there are some numbers and marks on the surface.

These numbers represent the international gold mark system.

On the other hand, the origin where people purchase indicates an estimation of the item’s purity.

Gold dealers and buyers might have a particular machine that will help you to check the materials inside your jewellery.

The XRF is a particular machine that evaluates what metals are inside a specific item. But remember, this is just an estimation. Sometimes the items are made with more materials, and the machine can’t detect them.

Just make an appointment with a gold dealer near where you live and ask them for a free appraisal.

On the kit you will have:

• Different bottles of acid represent all the different karat weights on the market (test solution).
• A test stone where you can check the purity.

You will need to scratch the jewellery or gold item with the test stone and then apply the test solution.

In the example below the person was using the 18K test solution with different types of jewellery.

If the color remains on the stone, the jewellery is made from the karat weight of the test solution that you applied.

As soon as you check the carat weight of your gold items and jewellery, you can calculate how much is the monetary value with the current market (Spot price).

Just remember, the spot price is the value on the market at a specific moment. That doesn’t mean that if you exchange it, you will obtain the same price in cash.

Every business that exchanges gold for cash has to profit, so if you want to sell your gold jewellery you should understand that they will exchange it for a price below the spot price.

It would be best to compare the price of different gold dealers and metals merchants on the market to make a decision.

It would help if you used a weight balance to calculate the spot price on the market.

Let’s pretend that the carat weight of the picture above is 9K.

That means that the spot price is $29,76 AU Dollars per gram, and the total weight of the gold item is 101,20 grams, so the total spot value is $3011 AU Dollars (Spot Price*Total Weight).

If you want to check the gold price for today, you can discover it here.