What Is the Meaning of a Gold Ounce?
A "gold ounce" is one troy ounce of elemental or pure gold. A troy ounce weighs 31.103 grams, compared to 28.348 grams for a standard ounce. Troy ounces are used to measure precious metals and gems while regular or avoirdupois ounces are used to measure the weight of flour, corn and other regular solid materials. Gold weight is usually expressed as a "gold ounce" when referring to gold coins. Does this Spark an idea?
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History
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According to WordIQ.com, the South African Krugerrand was the first coin to contain one troy ounce of fine gold. Introduced in 1967, the Krugerrand is a gold alloy, made up of 91.67 percent pure gold and other metals to bring the total weight to 1.0909 troy ounces, or 33.9305 grams. The difference between the weight of the coin and the weight of the troy ounce of gold is important. At $1,000 per gold ounce, the difference between a troy ounce of pure gold and a troy ounce of 91.97 fine gold with alloy is $90.90.
Other Coins
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The success of the Krugerrand led to the introduction of numerous other gold ounce coins. The Canadian Maple Leaf was first sold in 1979. At 0.9999 fine gold, it eventually outsold the Krugerrand. The other two major gold ounce coins are the United States Eagle, an alloy like the Kruggerand at 0.9167 fine gold, and the Austrian Philharmonic, at 0.9999 fine. Because all of the four major gold ounce coins contain a total of one troy ounce of gold, it is easy to compare pricing, even if the overall weight varies between coins.
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Effects
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The gold ounce or troy ounce should not be confused with the troy pound. A troy pound has only 12 ounces while a more generally recognized regular pound has 16 ounces. While a troy ounce is more than 9.7 percent heavier than a regular or avoirdupois ounce, because a troy pound has fewer ounces, a troy pound weighs less than a regular pound.
Benefits
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Using a gold ounce or troy ounce, as the unit of measurement for the weight of gold, provides a universal standard for valuing the amount of precious metal in an object. With coins, using a troy ounce scale also provides a way to tell if a "gold ounce" coin does, in fact, contain one ounce of gold.
Carats and Hallmarks
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The amount of gold in proportion to other alloys is usually expressed in carats, sometimes spelled karats and abbreviated as the letter K. Hallmarks are usually expressed in parts of gold per thousand. In jewelry, 24K gold is considered pure gold, with a hallmark of 1000. Sometimes pure gold is expressed as 999 since it is difficult to get all the impurities out of gold. In descending order, 22 carat gold is 916.6 fine, 18 carat is 750 fine, 14 carat is 585 fine and 10 carat is 417 fine.
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References
Resources
- Photo Credit gold coin image by Greg Pickens from Fotolia.com
