14K Gold Price per Gram Today

585 or 583? Two numbers for one karat

A gram of 14K gold is worth 58.3% of a gram of pure gold, because 14 ÷ 24 = 0.5833. Multiply the spot price per gram by 0.583 and you have the melt value of a gram of 14K; a buyer’s offer is then a percentage of that.

Look at enough 14K jewelry, though, and you’ll notice two different fineness numbers stamped on it. Both mean 14 karat. They come from different rulebooks.

Why most pieces say 585

European hallmarking expresses fineness in parts per thousand and rounds the 14 karat standard up to 585. Setting the mark a little above the exact 583.3 means a piece stamped 585 is never short of true 14 karat, even after a small assay variation. American manufacturers adopted the 585 mark for export and imports, so today a U.S. chain may say 14K, 14KT, 585 or both.

Where 583 still turns up

The exact figure, 583, was the official standard in the Soviet Union, and Soviet-era rings and earrings commonly carry it alongside a state assay mark with a five-pointed star. The stamp also appears on some older pieces from other countries. For valuation, 583 and 585 are treated the same: 14 karat.

For a head-to-head on purity and price, the 10K gold price page shows what you give up by dropping to the legal minimum.

Going the other way, the 18K gold price page shows what the step up to 75% gold costs per gram.

The legal tolerance on a 14K chain, and the parts that aren’t gold

Chains are the most common 14K item people price, and they come with quirks that rings don’t have. Some of those quirks lower the real gold content; others just trip up the scale.

Start with the law. Under the National Gold and Silver Stamping Act, which the FTC Guides (16 CFR Part 23) follow, an article stamped 14K may assay up to 3 parts per thousand low on its own metal, or up to 7 parts per thousand low when the solder is melted in. For 14K that works out to a floor of about 0.580 without solder and 0.576 with it. Chains contain a lot of solder joints, so the solder rule is the one that bites.

Clasps, springs and hollow links

• A spring-ring or lobster clasp contains a small steel spring. It weighs little, but it is not gold, and a refiner won’t pay for it.
• The clasp may be stamped while the chain itself is not. The stamp proves the clasp; a jeweler’s test proves the chain.
• Hollow rope, box and herringbone chains look heavy but weigh little. The price depends on grams, not on how thick the chain looks.
• Replacement clasps are sometimes a lower karat or gold-filled. Chains repaired over the years can end up with mixed parts.

Weighing a chain the way a buyer will

1. Untangle the chain and remove any pendant, which is weighed and valued separately.
2. Weigh it on a scale that reads to 0.1 gram or better, in grams or pennyweights, never in kitchen ounces.
3. Check the stamp on both ends and ask for a test if either end is unmarked.
4. Multiply the weight by 0.583 to get grams of pure gold, then by the per-gram gold price.
5. Compare the buyer’s offer with that melt value as a percentage.

The spread between the low and high offer on one ordinary chain is more than $200 in this example. That is why it pays to know the melt figure before you walk in; the scrap gold calculator gives it to you with the live price.

Solid 14K, gold-filled or plated: what the FTC definitions mean in grams

GF, GP and HGE marks mean a piece isn’t solid, as the questions below point out. It helps to know how little gold those items actually contain, because the FTC Guides define each term with a measurable minimum.

• Gold-filled: a layer of at least 10 karat gold mechanically bonded to a base metal, making up at least 1/20 of the item’s total metal weight. That’s why the stamp reads 1/20 14K GF.
• Rolled gold plate: the same construction with a thinner layer, such as 1/40, marked RGP.
• Gold electroplate: at least 0.175 microns of gold of 10 karat or better, applied by electrolysis.
• Heavy gold electroplate: at least 2.5 microns of 10 karat or better, marked HGE or HEP.
• Vermeil: sterling silver coated with at least 2.5 microns of 10 karat or better gold.

Worked example: a gold-filled bracelet

Say a bracelet stamped 1/20 14K GF weighs 20 grams. At most one-twentieth of it, 1 gram, is 14K gold, and that gram holds 0.583 grams of pure gold. At an example price of $3,000 per ounce, the gold inside is worth about $56. A solid 14K bracelet of the same weight would hold about $1,125.

In practice most buyers pay far less than that $56 for gold-filled items, or decline them, since separating the thin layer costs money. Plated pieces carry so little gold that they have no scrap value at all.

A quick way to spot the difference

Wear tells you a lot. Plated items show a different-colored metal at the edges, clasp and high points once the plating rubs through. Gold-filled pieces hold up much longer but can still show brass at worn corners. Solid 14K looks the same all the way through, and a jeweler can confirm it with a file notch and acid test in a couple of minutes.

14K by the gram, pennyweight and ounce

Most searches for 14K prices come down to one of three units: “how much is 14k gold per gram,” “14k gold price per ounce,” or the pennyweight figure that U.S. buyers write on their price boards. The math is the same in each case, applied to a different weight.

Converting between the three

1. Per gram: divide the spot price per troy ounce by 31.1035, then multiply by 0.583.
2. Per pennyweight: divide spot by 20, then multiply by 0.583. One dwt is 1.555 grams.
3. Per troy ounce of 14K alloy: multiply spot by 0.583. That ounce contains 0.583 ounce of pure gold.

At an example spot of $3,000, those rules give roughly $56.26 per gram, $87.50 per pennyweight and $1,750 per troy ounce of 14K. The gold price per gram page shows the pure-gold starting figure for the first calculation.

For real values rather than examples, plug today’s gold price into the same three steps. A 1% move in spot moves every 14K figure by 1%.

There is no separate “14k gold spot price” traded anywhere. Exchanges trade pure gold, and every 14K quote you see is derived from spot with the 14/24 ratio.

One practical check: a buyer’s price board that lists 14K per pennyweight should equal 58.3% of the spot price divided by 20, times whatever share of melt the buyer pays. If you do that division and the board implies a much lower percentage than the buyer quoted you out loud, ask which spot price and which percentage the board uses.