About that Gold…

Have you ever found a piece of gold jewelry marked with numbers instead of karats, and wondered what those numbers represent?

Most people in the US who buy their gold locally, or receive a piece of jewelry as a gift probably don’t give much thought to its quality because the US system for gold uses karats, i.e. 10k, 14k, 18k, etc.  The number of karats equalling the gold purity.

Detectorists, however, frequently find gold jewelry from a variety of different countries, which can be confusing when trying to determine gold quality.

The European system for gold uses number designations which correspond to the percentage of gold content.

The following info may be helpful to you in determining the karatage of your foreign gold finds.

The European karat system for gold:

Number         Karats           % of Gold

333                   8k                    33.3%

375                   9k                     37.5%

417                  10k                    41.7%

500                 12k                    50%

585                  14k                    58.5%

750                  18k                    75%

875                  21k                    87.5%

917                  22k                    91.7%

999                 24k                    100%

(10k is marked “417” for 41.7% gold, 14k is marked “585” for 58.5% gold, etc…)

To determine karatage of a piece of jewelry, look for the quality mark.  Pieces generally bear the stamp of their karatage based on the US or European system.
Note-Some antique jewelry may not have these marks, yet still be gold.

10 k is the lowest gold content that can be legally marked or sold as gold jewelry in the US.

9k is a popular karatage sold in England and other regions, and 8k is very popular in Germany.