How Much Is Gold Worth?
If you are getting ready to sell your gold, knowing what your scrap gold is worth will help you to maximize your return when you go to sell it to a gold buyer. First you need to know how much is an ounce of gold worth today. Knowledge is power. Know how much your gold is worth before selling it and you will avoid getting scammed.
Determining the Value of Your Gold
Determining how much your gold is worth per pennyweight (dwt) will help you to know if selling your gold is a good idea, based on how much the buyer is willing to pay. The formula for determining DWT is: Spot Price/20 x Purity
Purity of your gold is determined by karat as follows:
10K is 41.7% (.417)
14Kis 58.3% (.583)
18K is 75% (.750)
24K is 100% (1.00)
Notice that the purity of the gold is converted into a decimal. Therefore, if gold is currently at $1,700 per ounce and you have 10K gold to sell, the formula would be:
$1,700 / 20 X .417 or $35.45 per DWT.
If you are selling scrap gold, you should expect to get around 75% of that value when you sell to a gold buyer. At $1,700 per ounce, you should get around $26 per pennyweight for your 10K jewelry. The other 25% is the business owners profit to cover their overhead. You can use the formula above and subsitute the current current gold price and the purity of your gold.
What is DWT?
DWT is an abbreviation that stands for pennyweight. Pennyweight is a measurement of weight in the Troy measurement system that is equal to approximately 24 grains, which is .05 ounces. One pennyweight is the metric equivalent of 1.555 grams. Twenty pennyweights are equal to a troy ounce of gold. The price of gold is constantly changing, so when you value your gold one day, don’t be shocked to find that it does not value exactly the next time you figure its worth. If you divide the price of gold by twenty, then you will find the value of gold per pennyweight. So if gold is selling at $1700, then the current market value per pennyweight of 24k gold is $85.
Sorting Your Gold
Jewelry isn’t made from pure gold. Because the metal is so soft, other metals are added to the gold to make it harder and more durable. The number of karats in a gold item reveals its proportion of gold to metal, with most jewelry can range from 10K to 18K, although 24K is also seen on occasion.
When determining how much your scrap gold is worth, you will first need to separate your gold into karats –including 10K, 14K, 24K, and so on. Make a pile of any scrap that you have that is gold-plated. If you are uncertain about the karat of your gold, a magnifying glass can be useful for looking inside the bands of rings or on the clasps of chains.
Weighing Your Gold
You can weigh your gold on any household scale to determine the weight of your gold. Converting grams or ounces to pennyweights is simple. One pennyweight equals 1.5555 grams and one kitchen ounce is equal to 18.23 pennyweights. Keep these tips in mind and you will happily discover that the old, broken, unwanted gold jewelry, dental work, and other items that are cluttering up your jewelry box or hiding in your dresser drawer have never been worth more!
