Gold Price per Pennyweight Today

Why U.S. jewelers still weigh in pennyweights

A pennyweight of pure gold is worth one-twentieth of the troy-ounce price. For jewelry, multiply that by the karat purity: 0.583 for 14K, 0.417 for 10K.

The unit is old. A pennyweight was originally the weight of an English silver penny, which is why it is abbreviated dwt: d for denarius, the Roman coin that gave the penny its symbol, and wt for weight. It stayed in the American jewelry trade because it fits the size of the work. Rings, chains and castings weigh a handful of pennyweights, so dwt numbers stay small and easy to read.

Today you will meet the pennyweight in several places:

• Casting suppliers sell karat alloy and casting grain by the pennyweight.
• Bench jewelers estimate metal for a custom piece in dwt before quoting labor.
• Scrap buyers and pawn shops post “per dwt” rates for 10K, 14K and 18K.
• Dental labs and refiners weigh crowns and bridges in dwt.
• Refinery settlement statements often list both grams and pennyweights.

Setting a jewelry scale to dwt

Most jewelry scales cycle through grams, pennyweights, troy ounces and carats with a mode button. Check the small label on the display before writing anything down. A reading of 4.20 in dwt is 6.53 grams; the same 4.20 in grams is only 2.70 dwt. The ct mode is the metric carat of 0.2 gram used for gemstones and has nothing to do with gold karats.

Pennyweight values by karat, with worked scrap examples

Because there are exactly 20 pennyweights in a troy ounce, the math is friendlier than grams. At an example price of $3,000 per ounce, a pennyweight of pure gold is worth $150 even. That example is used below; the live figures are at the top of this page, and the same quote per ounce appears on the gold price per ounce today dashboard.

Pricing a 14K lot

1. Weigh the 14K pieces together after removing stones: say 8.4 dwt.
2. Find the 14K value per dwt: $150 × 0.5833 = $87.50 at the example price.
3. Multiply: 8.4 × $87.50 = $735 in melt value.
4. If a buyer quotes a per-dwt rate for 14K, divide it by $87.50 to see what share of melt the offer represents.
5. Repeat for each karat separately. Mixing 10K into a 14K pile lets a buyer pay the 10K rate on everything.

Karat-specific pages go deeper. The 14K gold price page covers stamps such as 585 and 14KP and what separates them.

A 10K class ring, priced step by step

Class rings are very often 10K, and many carry a synthetic stone. Suppose one weighs 8.0 dwt with the stone removed. At the example price, 10K is worth $62.50 per dwt, so the ring holds $500 of gold. If the stone can’t come out, expect the buyer to estimate its weight and subtract it before pricing. 10K is the lowest karat that can legally be sold as gold in the United States; its stamps, including 417, are on the 10K gold price page.

Turning a per-dwt offer into a per-gram one

Some buyers post pennyweight rates because the numbers look larger. Divide a per-dwt offer by 1.5552 to get the per-gram equivalent, and multiply a per-gram offer by 1.5552 to go the other way. Then compare like with like.

Dental gold and other pennyweight scrap

Dental crowns, bridges, inlays and onlays are sold by the pennyweight, but they are rarely the same alloy twice. The American Dental Association sorts casting alloys into three classes, and knowing the class explains why two crowns of the same weight can pay very differently.

Noble metals here means gold, platinum and palladium, among others. A yellow crown is not always rich in gold, and a silvery crown may hold valuable palladium or platinum. Porcelain-fused crowns carry a ceramic layer that adds weight but no metal value.

Getting a fair settlement on dental scrap

1. Separate all-metal crowns from porcelain-covered ones, since refiners treat them differently.
2. Weigh each group in pennyweights and write the figures down before handing anything over.
3. Ask whether payment is based on an assay after melting, and whether you will see the assay results.
4. Ask for gold, platinum and palladium to be listed separately on the settlement.
5. Ask about refining fees and minimum lot sizes in advance, since small lots often carry a flat charge.

Why refiners pay on assay

A crown’s alloy can’t be identified by eye, and the original lab records are rarely available. Melting a whole lot into one bar mixes the metals evenly, so a sample taken from that bar gives a reliable reading for everything in it. That is why reputable refiners pay on assay, and why the final settlement can take days rather than minutes.

Gold-filled scrap by the pennyweight

Buyers also quote gold-filled items per pennyweight, at a small fraction of karat rates. A piece stamped 1/20 12K GF holds only about 2.5% pure gold by weight, so its value per dwt is a few percent of the 24K figure.

The same questions work for jewelry scrap. Offers from different buyer types are compared on the where to sell gold page.

Before visiting any buyer, run your weights through the scrap gold calculator, which estimates melt by karat, so you arrive knowing the ceiling for your lot.

Bench and refinery terms that come with the pennyweight

• Casting grain: small pellets of karat alloy that jewelers melt and cast. The name describes the shape, not the grain unit of weight.
• Findings: clasps, jump rings, earring backs and other small parts, often sold per piece or per dwt.
• Plumb gold: gold that meets its stamped karat with no tolerance below it. Many U.S. manufacturers mark it with a P, as in 14KP.
• Bench sweeps: floor dust, polishing waste and filings from a workshop, sent to a refiner and paid on assay.
• Lot: one batch of scrap processed and paid together, usually weighed in dwt or troy ounces.

Is a pennyweight the weight of a penny?

Not of an American one. A U.S. cent struck since 1982 weighs 2.5 grams, about 1.6 pennyweights. The name refers to the medieval English silver penny, and the unit has kept its value while the coin changed completely.

When a pennyweight is too coarse

For flakes, chips and single small findings, the pennyweight is too big to be useful. The next unit down is the grain, and 24 of them make a pennyweight; the gold price per grain page covers that scale.