How Many Karats Is Your Gold? The Jewelry Guide You’ll Wish You Knew Sooner

We are living in the crazy times and as people are attempting to find ways to not just diversify their income through pursuing businesses, and through side hustles. However, there is a discussion about diversifying portfolios through investments. I know you heard of the usual:

Stocks
Bond
Cryptocurrency
Gold

But let’s talk about gold.

Gold, The Original Currency

In the topic of precious metals, there are various ways to store and collect them, usually in the form of bars or coins. But there is one form that I think is not discussed enough.

Jewelry.

Specifically, gold jewelry.

Image of pure gold bar and coins by Zlaťáky.cz

So, whether you are a jewelry enthusiast, like me, or someone who loves collecting precious, cultural, and vintage finds, you can utilize gold jewelry as part of your financial portfolio.

Before we get started, we should be on the same page about what the various makeup jewelry is made of.

What is a Karat?

Let’s go to the Google definition.

The karat (US spelling, symbol k or Kt) or carat (UK spelling, symbol c or Ct) is a fractional measure of purity for gold alloys, in parts fine per 24 parts whole. The Karat system is a standard adopted by the US federal law.

Pure gold is 24 karats; anything less than 24 is gold mixed with another metal, typically brass and/or copper.

A question that comes up is, why isn’t solid 24 karat gold jewelry sold everywhere?

Right?

Why not just get the real deal?

1.) It is due to cost; 24 gold is expensive for the average shopper.

2.) This point is up for debate, but pure gold is soft and malleable, so another metal is mixed in to make the jewelry more durable and “wearable”.

While it’s true that pure gold is soft, it is sometimes marketed as unwearable. Personally, I don’t find that to be the case.

A table highlighting between the labels and their gold percentages

In fact, the charm of pure gold jewelry or even pieces with the higher gold percentages (i.e., 91.7% or above) is that they mold to the shape of the wearer, giving the jewelry more character and a unique fit for each person.

Typically, 10, 14, and even 18 karat solid gold jewelry is sold in the United States. If you look at the chart, you will see they are about 42%, 58%, and 75% of solid gold, respectively. Internationally, you will find more pieces stamped as 20 karat or above. It might be tricky to find the true concentration, as, again, the karat is based on the US regulations. In a future post, I will go into more detail about how I personally test my gold and estate jewelry for authenticity!