Example:   1. I want to sale my 14k gold chain, it weighs 22.4 g (I had the weight from an appraisal I got 12 years ago)   2. Today's Gold Price: $1537.75 (per troy ounce) divided by 31.1035 equals: $49.44 per gram of pure 24k gold   3. $49.44 per gram x .5833 for 14k = $28.84 x 22.4g (gold weight) = $646.01 If you sale your gold at a pawn shop you will probably get 50% of what is worth, a jewelry store may give you more, but only a refinery or a metals broker will give you 85-90% of what the real value of the gold is. No one will give you 100% the value of scrap gold because it has to be refined again before it can be used or sold off.

GOLD - Price, strength, usefulness and color
When you talk about gold the first thing one will ask is what is the karat content? ...normally 10 karat, 14 karat, 18 karat, 22 karat. In different parts of the world, different karat weights are preferred. Americans like 10 and 14 karat gold. Europeans prefer 18 karat gold and Indians prefer 22 karat gold. Depending on the gold Karat content in the item, the gold item will be affected in price, strength, usefulness, and color.

Price - Different karat weights in an item will make a difference in the price. Because the karat designation determines just how much gold there is in the metals which make up the item. The lower the karat number, the less gold there is in the item and the less expensive the gold is - and coincidentally, harder and more durable.

Jewelery consistently accounts for over two-thirds of annual gold demand. India is the largest consumer in volume terms, accounting for 27% of demand in 2009, followed by China and the USA. Industrial, dentistry and medical uses account for around 12% of gold demand. Gold has high thermal and electrical conductivity properties, along with a high resistance to corrosion and bacterial colonization.

Gold Karat is measured in units of 24. 24 karat gold is pure gold. How much alloy is mixed with the gold determines its karat content, and therefore how much you pay. 10 karat gold is made up of ten parts gold to 14 parts alloy (10 + 14 = 24). 14 karat gold is mdse up of 14 parts gold to 10 parts alloy (14 + 10 = 24). 18 karat gold is made up of 18 parts gold to 6 parts alloy (18 + 6 = 24), and so on up the scale until you reach pure gold at 24 karat.

Since April 2001 the gold price has more than quintupled in value against the US dollar, hitting a new all-time high of $1507.70

Strength - Pure gold is not very useful for jewelry, because it is too soft. Over the centuries different metals have been successfully alloyed with gold to strengthen it, including copper and silver. Different percentages of alloys make up different colors of gold, and while most manufacturers use similar formulas, they are not all the same. Mixing all those different formulas together may make an unstable compound which can lead to brittleness or cracking. That is why, instead of melting all your old chains to make a ring for you, your jeweler may prefer to simply credit you the gold weight (minus a refining fee) towards your ring purchase. Your jeweler then periodically sends all the gold he or she has collected to be refined. Refining removes all the alloys from the gold, and it can then be re-alloyed in the proper amounts to make more karat gold mixtures.

Usefulness - The more gold in the mixture, the softer and less durable the item will be. Most women in America prefer 14 karat gold for the right balance of color and durability. Many American men who like to use their hands prefer a ring made from 10 karat gold, which is harder and can resist scratching more easily. Realistically, 18 and 22 karat rings would need to be polished more often to retain their shine, or might bend more easily if undue pressure is applied. But in normal wear, with proper cleaning and an occasional polish from your local jeweler, high karat jewelry can last a lifetime to become a beautiful addition to your family heirlooms.

Gold is the most malleable and ductile of all metals; a single gram can be beaten into a sheet of 1 square meter, or an ounce into 300 square feet. Gold leaf can be beaten thin enough to become translucent. The transmitted light appears greenish blue, because gold strongly reflects yellow and red.  Such semi-transparent sheets also strongly reflect infrared light, making them useful as infrared (radiant heat) shields in visors of heat-resistant suits, and in sun-visors for spacesuits. 

Gold readily creates alloys with many other metals. These alloys can be produced to modify the hardness and other metallurgical properties, to control melting point or to create exotic colors (see below).  Gold is a good conductor of heat and electricity and reflects infrared radiation strongly. Chemically, it is unaffected by air, moisture and most corrosive reagents, and is therefore well suited for use in coins and jewelry and as a protective coating on other, more reactive, metals. However, it is not chemically inert.

Common oxidation states of gold include +1 (gold(I) or aurous compounds) and +3 (gold(III) or auric compounds). Gold ions in solution are readily reduced and precipitated out as gold metal by adding any other metal as the reducing agent. The added metal is oxidized and dissolves allowing the gold to be displaced from solution and be recovered as a solid precipitate. High quality pure metallic gold is tasteless and scentless, in keeping with its resistance to corrosion (it is metal ions which confer taste to metals).

Color - With all the different manufacturers using a variety of different alloy mixtures, it is sometimes hard to get the yellows, pinks and other colors of gold to be the same. The amount of actual gold in the mixture is regulated, and the colors, yellow, white, green, pink, etc. are pretty standardized. But you may find that a 14 karat yellow gold ring from one store looks slightly more golden or yellow than that of another. This is nothing more than a slight difference in the alloy of that batch of gold and is nothing to be concerned about, so long as the piece is properly karat stamped. The higher karat golds, however, do tend to take on a rich depth of color not found in the lower karat weights.

White gold is an alloy of gold and at least one white metal, usually nickel, manganese or palladium. Like yellow gold, the purity of white gold is given in karats.

White gold's properties vary depending on the metals and proportions used. As a result, white gold alloys can be used for many different purposes; while a nickel alloy is hard and strong and therefore good for rings and pins, gold-palladium alloys are soft, pliable and good for white gold gemstone settings, sometimes with other metals like copper, silver, and platinum for weight and durability, although this often requires specialized goldsmiths. The term white gold is used very loosely in the industry to describe karat gold alloys with a whitish hue. Many believe that the color of the rhodium plating, which is seen on many commercial pieces, is actually the color of white gold. The term "white" covers a large spectrum of colors that borders or overlaps pale yellow, tinted brown, and even very pale rose. The jewelry industry often hides these off-white colors by rhodium plating.

A common white gold formulation consists of 90 wt.% gold and 10 wt.% nickel. Copper can be added to increase malleability. The alloys used in jewelry industry are gold-palladium-silver and gold-nickel-copper-zinc. Palladium and nickel act as primary bleaching agents for gold; zinc acts as a secondary bleaching agent to attenuate the color of copper.

Whatever the karat weight, make sure it is stamped on a surface of your piece of fine jewelry. This is your assurance that the manufacturer is following standardized weight formulas, and is meeting the requirements of the laws regarding gold karating. If it is not stamped - beware - and if you have your piece repaired, be sure the bench jeweler does not eliminate the karat stamping from your piece.

Europeans use a different system for marking the gold karat content, so the stamp or engraving on your piece of jewelry may need to be interpreted for you by your local jeweler.

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