That ring, that broken chain — here's the exact math a buyer runs, so you walk in knowing the honest number instead of just hoping.
You’re holding it right now — a ring that no longer fits, a chain with a broken clasp, a single earring whose partner vanished years ago. It’s stamped 14K or 585, and the question is simple but loaded: how much is my gold jewelry worth? Not the number a buyer wants you to accept. The honest one.
Here’s the good news: the math is not a mystery, and no buyer should know it better than you do. By the end of this you’ll be able to calculate your gold’s real melt value in about a minute — the same calculation every honest dealer runs — so you walk in informed instead of hopeful.
The 60-second answer
Every gold valuation comes down to one formula:
melt value = weight (grams) × purity (as a fraction) × gold price per gram
That’s it. A 14K piece is 58.5% gold, so its purity fraction is 0.585. Multiply grams by that fraction to get your pure gold weight, then multiply by the live per-gram price. The melt-value calculator does all three steps for you — but it helps to understand each one, because that’s where people lose money. Let’s walk through them.
Step 1 — Find the karat stamp
Look for a tiny number stamped on the clasp of a chain, the inside of a ring band, or the post of an earring. It tells you the purity in one of two systems — karats (out of 24) or fineness (parts per 1,000):
| Stamp | Karat | Fineness | Pure gold |
|---|---|---|---|
| 24K / 999 | 24K | 999 | 99.9% |
| 22K / 916 | 22K | 916 | 91.6% |
| 18K / 750 | 18K | 750 | 75% |
| 14K / 585 | 14K | 585 | 58.5% |
| 10K / 417 | 10K | 417 | 41.7% |
The stamp is often worn smooth or hidden in an awkward spot. This is where a bit of magnification earns its keep — and where I’ll be upfront that the product links below are affiliate links.
A 30× jeweler’s loupe with a built-in light makes a faint 585 readable in seconds and costs less than a takeaway lunch.
If a piece is unmarked, or the stamp doesn’t match how it behaves, don’t guess — confirm it’s real before you count on any value.
Step 2 — Weigh it properly
Gold is priced per gram, so an accurate weight is everything. A regular kitchen scale that reads in whole grams will round away real money on a light chain. You want a scale that reads to 0.01 g.
A 0.01 g digital jewelry scale costs little and pays for itself on the first piece by stopping you from being weighed — and rounded — to someone else’s advantage.
Step 3 — Subtract the stones and non-gold parts
Buyers pay for gold, not for the diamond, the cubic zirconia, or the steel spring inside the clasp. If your piece has stones or non-gold components, their weight has to come out of the calculation.
For a rough estimate you can often unscrew or note obvious stones and clasps and subtract their share. For a stone-heavy piece — a cluster ring, say — recognize that a meaningful chunk of the scale weight isn’t gold at all. A jeweler can give an exact gold-only weight, but for a ballpark, err on the conservative side so you’re never over-estimating what a buyer will pay.
Step 4 — Melt value vs. what a buyer actually pays
Run the formula and you get the melt value — the raw worth of the gold content. But that is the ceiling, not the offer. Every buyer takes a cut to cover refining, overhead, risk and profit. That’s not a scam; it’s the business. Roughly, here’s what different channels pay against melt:
| Buyer | Typical payout vs. melt |
|---|---|
| Mail-in refiner | ~90–96% |
| Local gold / jewelry buyer | ~70–90% |
| Pawn shop | ~50–80% |
These are ranges, not promises — your mileage varies by buyer, quantity and negotiation. The point is to know your melt value first, so any offer can be measured against it. Our step-by-step selling guide covers how to compare offers without getting talked down.
A worked example: a 10 g 14K chain
Say you have a solid 14K gold chain that weighs 10 grams with the clasp removed.
- Pure gold weight: 10 g × 0.585 = 5.85 g of pure gold.
- Melt value: 5.85 g × the live gold price per gram (the calculator fills this in — I’m not printing a figure here, because gold moves daily and a number baked into an article is wrong by next week).
- Realistic payout: at a dealer paying, say, 80% of melt, you’d receive about four-fifths of that melt number.
Notice what just happened: you now have a defensible figure and a realistic expectation. That combination is exactly what stops you from accepting a lowball.
Three mistakes that cost people money
- Confusing a regular ounce with a troy ounce. Gold is quoted per troy ounce (31.10 g), not the kitchen ounce (28.35 g) — about a 10% difference. If you convert wrong, every figure you calculate is off by a tenth. Working in grams, as above, sidesteps the trap entirely.
- Trusting the first offer. The spread between a fair buyer and a poor one is real money. Always get three quotes and hold them against your own melt math.
- Selling branded or antique pieces as scrap. A signed designer piece or a genuine antique is often worth far more intact than melted. Get those appraised before they ever hit a scale.
So — how much is your gold jewelry worth? You now know how to answer that yourself: read the stamp, weigh the gold, do the multiplication, and expect a fair discount to melt. Skip the arithmetic and let the gold calculator show you the live number, no markups and no pressure.
Common questions
How much is my gold jewelry worth?
Its melt value is the weight in grams times the gold purity (0.585 for 14K, 0.75 for 18K, and so on) times the live gold price per gram. A buyer then pays you a percentage of that melt value — typically 70–90% from a dealer. Weigh the piece, read its karat stamp, and run those two numbers through a calculator to get the honest figure.
What is 14K gold worth per gram?
14K is 58.5% pure gold, so one gram of 14K is worth 0.585 times the live per-gram gold price. There is no fixed dollar figure — gold moves every day — so multiply 0.585 by today's per-gram price, or let the calculator pull it live.
Does the karat stamp guarantee the gold is real?
Mostly, but not always. Stamps like 585, 750, 14K or 18K indicate solid gold of that purity, while GF, GP, HGE or RGP mean gold-filled or gold-plated — a thin layer over base metal, with almost no melt value. If a piece is unmarked or you doubt the stamp, test it before you count on any value.
Why is the offer lower than the melt value I calculated?
Because every buyer takes a cut to cover refining, risk and profit — that is normal. Spot is the ceiling, not the price you receive. Refiners pay closest to melt, dealers somewhat less, and pawn shops the least. The fix is simple: get three quotes and compare them against your own melt-value math.
Should I sell a designer or antique piece as scrap?
Not before checking. A signed Cartier, Tiffany or Van Cleef piece — or a genuine antique — is often worth far more intact than its gold weight. Melting it destroys that premium permanently. Have anything branded or old appraised before you sell it for scrap.