What Is A Karat?
You have likely owned a piece of jewelry or described that piece of jewelry by mentioning its number of karats, but do you really know what that means?
The term originated from ancient Middle Eastern and Mediterranean countries that used carob seeds to measure the weight of gold. Today, ‘karat’ is how we describe the weight of gemstones and the actual purity of our gold.
Being that gold is the softest metal in existence, it is commonly combined with a stronger alloy, such as silver or copper, to make it useable in the form of rings, necklaces, and other common jewelry. The term ‘karat’ identifies the percentage of pure gold to alloy in that piece of jewelry. The chart below shows the fineness (amount of gold parts per 1000) and the percentage of gold for the most common karat levels:
Karats – Fineness – Percentage Gold
24 ———- 1000.0 ——– 100.00
22 ———– 917.7 ——— 91.67
18 ———– 750.0 ——— 75.00
14 ———– 583.3 ——— 58.30
10 ———– 416.7 ——— 41.67
9 ————- 375.0 ——— 37.50
The purest level of gold is 24 karat which stands at a rare 99.99% pure. When determining the purity and fineness of other karat levels, they are compared to the 24 karat standard. Once the piece of jewelry’s karat level has been determined they are to be stamped with that purity level (or karat) so that a consumer will know exactly what they are getting. Unfortunately, this is not always as upfront and easy as it should be.
No matter what industry you are in these days it always seems there is someone out there trying to take advantage of people and make a quick buck. The jewelry industry has their fair share of these people as well. Keep in mind there are laws that jewelry manufactures are to abide by when stamping the number of karats on their merchandise, but how do we know what they say is fact? With no way for a consumer to test their gold they are almost forced to blindly follow the jeweler and hope they are not being swindled.
When you send your gold jewelry to Cash4Gold, however, you do not have to worry about these problems because they use the latest state-of-the-art testing methods to help determine the true purity or karat level. So you know when the people at Cash4Gold send you back an offer telling you how many karats your jewelry actually was they have thoroughly tested your gold and have accurately determined its purity level.
About Cash4Gold
Want to sell your gold? Cash4Gold is the industry leader in the direct-to-customer gold refining business, setting new standards for innovation, ease of use, speed, security and confidentiality. Cash4Gold insists on the highest standards of honesty and transparency and the company offers a 100 percent customer satisfaction guarantee. Go to www.cash4gold.com or call 1-877-GOLD-590 to request a Refiner’s Return Pak or for more information.
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