How to Calculate Gold in Grams

If you plan to sell your gold for scrap, you can determine the amount in grams as long as you know beforehand the number of karats. Measuring in ounces, however, may not be appropriate if your items do not weigh much. If your measurement is off by a mere two-tenths of an ounce, you could miss the true market value by $200. A gram scale can provide the accuracy needed to determine the market value of your gold items.

Things You'll Need

• Gram scale

Instructions

1. Find the current price of gold in ounces. This can be found at GoldPrice.org, both in ounces and grams.

2. Divide the price per Troy ounce (if you pulled off the per-ounce price instead of the per-gram price) by 31.10 to get the per-gram price.

3. Weigh your gold items on a gram scale, being careful to weigh only like-karat items together.

4. Calculate the proportion of your items that are pure gold by dividing the karats by 24. For example, 14K gold is 14/24=58.3% pure gold.

5. Multiply your results from Steps 2, 3, and 4 together to get your answer. For example, if the price per Troy ounce is $1,000 and you have 100 grams of 14K gold, you have $1,000/31.10*100*0.583 = $1,874.60 worth of gold in the current market.

Tips & Warnings

• If you are using a very sensitive ounce scale, convert the ounces to grams by multiplying by 28.35. Note that your usual ounce scale measures in avoirdupois ounces, not Troy ounces. The factor 28.35 refers to conversion from the avoirdupois ounce, which is why it differs from the conversion factor 31.10 in Step 2.

• If the item is merely gold-plated, not solid gold, the above calculation is not applicable. Gold-plated items should not be included in the weighing.

Resources

• GoldPrice.org: Charts of Current Gold Prices