Canada Gold Logo - Gold

BLOG

Home » Blog » What is Gold Karat?

What is Gold Karat?

Jul 10, 2014

The term “karat” has been used for centuries to as a unit of gold purity. Gold karat is not the same as “carat” which is a measurement of diamond weight. Normally we see 10k, 14k, or 18k jewellery, and naturally the higher you go the more pure the gold is. But what does gold karat really mean?

Let’s start with 24k gold, which is pure, 100%, real mccoy gold. From now on, think of every piece of gold as having a purity that ranges between 0 and 24. So, if we have a 10k piece of gold, that means 10 parts of 24 is gold, and the other 14 are other alloys. This equates to 41.67% gold and 58.33% of other alloys. Here is a chart that lists out the other purities.

gold karat

What other alloys are being used to make up the rest of your jewellery? There are an array of alloys that are typically used, such as silver, copper, nickel, zinc, or palladium. Some metals are chosen over others to alter the color. For example, “rose” gold has parts of copper to give that reddish color, and white gold is mixed with a white metal like silver, nickel, or palladium. Obviously the higher the Karat the higher the price of gold you can ask for.

RECENT BLOG POSTS

This is a series of blog posts provided by Canada Gold to educate our customers on the fundamentals of gold buying and selling. To see our earlier post, How is Gold Priced? Click here.   Gold 101 – Spot Price vs Buy Price: Why They’re Different When you sell gold or...

How Canada Gold is Using Live Chat to Help You Get Answers Right Away

How Canada Gold is Using Live Chat to Help You Get Answers Right Away

At Canada Gold, we know that selling your gold, silver, or precious metals can feel like a big decision — and having fast, reliable information makes all the difference. That’s why we’ve introduced Intercom live chat across our website: to give you real-time answers...