Gold Karat Value

Why spend the extra money and buy real gold jewelry when it is so easy to find something made from a gold colored metal? The answer is simple: gold does not change color over time and it never tarnishes, rusts, corrodes or fades. The one drawback of using pure gold to make jewelry is that it is extremely malleable and doesn’t hold its shape over time.

To strengthen pure gold so it can be used to make jewelry, other metals (called alloys) are added to the gold. 14 karat gold is 14 parts gold and 10 parts other metal or metals. Depending on the “other metal” or “alloy,” the color of the gold will be different. For example, 14kt yellow gold jewelry contains copper, while 14kt white gold contains nickel, zinc and copper. Because of the variety of alloys, gold can come in many colors such as 14k rose gold and in different formulations such as Italian 14k gold.

Of all the gold that is in circulation, 75% of it is used in jewelry. The rest is used as a color additive in glass or as a protective coating in electronics. Gold that has been used to make an item, such as 14 ct gold jewelry, can be reused by melting it down and reforming it. Cash4Gold can purchase your unwanted 14 carat gold items such as that old 14k gold necklace you no longer wear, and put that gold back into circulation.

What is 14 Karat Gold?

What is 14kt gold?

14 karats refers to the purity of gold. The term “14 karats”, or “14 carats”, gold originates from ancient times when carob seeds were used as a unit of measurement for gold. The seeds were noted for having a uniform weight and were used on the precision scales that measured the gold.

The higher the number of karats, the more gold an item contains. For example:

24K gold is pure gold.

18K is 75% gold and contains 18 parts gold and 6 parts alloy.

14K gold is 58.3% gold and contains 14 parts gold and 10 parts alloy.

12K gold is 50% gold and contains 12 parts gold and 12 parts alloy.

10K gold is 41.7% gold and contains 10 parts gold and 14 parts alloy. 10K gold is the minimum karat that can be called “gold” in the United States.

Today’s standards are not too far off from ancient times, we are still using karats. In the United States, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has a strict set of standards for the measurement of gold purity. Karat measurements for gold are not the same as those used in diamonds, and silver does not use the karat as a standard of measurement at all. The FTC requires that all items containing gold that is 10 karats or greater be marked with “K” or “Kt”. Karats are always marked with a “K” in the U.S. and never with a “C”.

In Europe, gold is stamped with numbers to indicate the percentage of gold as follows:

18K gold is marked 750

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