Gold Calculator: Melt Value by Karat

Scrap · jewelry · coins

Enter the weight and the karat. This tells you what the gold inside is worth at today’s spot price — in grams, troy ounces, pennyweights or grains.

Melt value calculator

Gold Calculator

What the gold in your item is worth at today’s spot price.

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Weight

Unit Jewelers and bullion dealers use troy ounces (31.1035 g), not the 28.35 g kitchen ounce.

Karat / purity These are the hallmark standards a buyer will assay against. Strictly, 14K means 14 parts of 24 = 583; pieces are made to 585 so they clear the mark. The gap is 0.3% — use “Other” if you know your exact fineness.

What a buyer typically pays — scrap buyers pay a percentage of melt, never 100%

Melt value Pure gold content at spot

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This is metal value, not collector value. A coin, a signed piece, a period setting or a designer mark can be worth far more than the gold in it — melting it would destroy that premium. Gemstones are not counted here either. If the item might be collectible or antique, get it appraised before you sell it as scrap.

Spot price source shown above. Figures are an estimate for information only, not an offer to buy or sell and not investment advice.

How the number is worked out

Three things, and nothing else: weight × purity × spot price.

Weight is converted to grams using exact definitions — a troy ounce is 31.1034768 g, a pennyweight is exactly one twentieth of that. If you are used to weighing in pennyweights, the converter is there.
Purity uses the hallmark standard, not the arithmetic fraction. 14K is 14 parts in 24, which works out at 583.3 fine — but pieces are manufactured to 585 so they pass assay, and 585 is what a buyer pays against. We use 585. The gap is 0.3 %; what is not defensible is stamping 585 and calculating 583.
Spot price is a live quote with its timestamp shown. If it is stale, cross-checks fail, or the feed flags itself, the calculator shows no number at all rather than a wrong one.

What you will actually be offered

Nobody buys at spot. A scrap buyer, a pawnbroker or a refiner keeps a margin to cover refining, assay, handling and their own risk — commonly somewhere between 10 and 30 % below melt, and it varies a great deal between buyers for the same item on the same day. The calculator can show that band so you walk in knowing the ceiling. Get more than one offer.

Before you sell anything

Melt value is the floor, not the price. An antique piece, a signed maker’s mark, a collectable coin or an intact setting with stones can be worth several times its metal, and melting destroys that permanently and irreversibly. If a piece is old, unusual, or you are not sure — get it looked at before it goes in the pot.

Karat, fineness and what the stamp means

The number stamped inside a ring is a purity mark. 10K is 417 fine, 14K is 585, 18K is 750, 22K is 917 and 24K is 999 — “pure” gold in practice. Unmarked does not mean fake and marked does not mean genuine: if the value matters, test it. Plated items have essentially no recoverable gold, whatever they weigh.

Ready to sell rather than just to price? What each buyer takes applies to scrap gold as much as to silver: the same channels, and the same arithmetic of turning every offer into a percentage of melt.

Weighing silver instead? Use the silver calculator. Holding US coins rather than scrap? Coin melt value knows their statutory weights.