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Scrap Gold Calculator
Free scrap gold calculator at today's live spot price of $4,276.60 an ounce. One gram of 14k is worth $80.20 in melt, 18k $103.12, 10k $57.29 — then set what a dealer offers and see the gap in dollars.
This calculator prices scrap gold — chains, rings, dental, broken jewellery, anything stamped with a karat — by the gold actually inside it at the live spot price. Pick the karat, enter the weight in grams, pennyweight or troy ounces, and it returns the melt value: the amount of pure gold you are holding, valued at what gold is worth right now.
Melt value is not an offer. Every buyer pays some fraction of it, and that fraction is the entire transaction. So the second row lets you enter the percentage you have been quoted and shows what it costs you in dollars, which is the number the buyer-run calculators leave out.
Melt value per gram, at $4,276.60 spot
22k gold
$126.04
0.9167 fine · per gram
18k gold
$103.12
0.75 fine · per gram
14k gold
$80.20
0.5833 fine · per gram
10k gold
$57.29
0.4167 fine · per gram
Gold is $4,276.60 a troy ounce, which is $137.50 a gram of pure gold. A 14k piece is 58.33% gold by weight, so every gram of it holds $80.20 of metal. That is melt value. What a buyer offers is a fraction of it, and the calculator below shows you that fraction in dollars.
What you would actually receive
70% is a starting point for comparison, not a claim about any buyer. Put your actual quote in and the gap becomes a number. If a buyer will not express an offer as a percentage of melt, that is itself the answer.
Karat, fineness and what a gram is worth
Gold content by karat, with live melt value per gram, per pennyweight and per troy ounce at the current $4,276.60 spot.
| Karat | Fineness | Gold % | Per gram | Per dwt | Per troy oz |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24k | 0.999 | 99.90% | $137.36 | $213.62 | $4,272.32 |
| 22k | 0.9167 | 91.67% | $126.04 | $196.02 | $3,920.36 |
| 21k | 0.875 | 87.50% | $120.31 | $187.10 | $3,742.03 |
| 18k | 0.75 | 75.00% | $103.12 | $160.37 | $3,207.45 |
| 14k | 0.5833 | 58.33% | $80.20 | $124.73 | $2,494.54 |
| 10k | 0.4167 | 41.67% | $57.29 | $89.10 | $1,782.06 |
| 9k | 0.375 | 37.50% | $51.56 | $80.19 | $1,603.73 |
If it is going out the door, the proceeds are a second decision
Jewellery is the most expensive way to own gold: you paid for design and labour that no buyer pays back, which is why scrap sells at a fraction of what the piece cost. Selling it is often the right call — but if the point was exposure to gold rather than the object itself, the next question is which form that exposure should take, and the answer is not automatically another physical thing.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
How do I calculate the value of scrap gold?
Multiply the weight by the karat's fineness to get pure gold content, then multiply by the spot price. A gram of 14k is 0.5833 grams of gold, and with gold at $4,276.60 an ounce — $137.50 a gram — that is $80.20. The calculator above does it for any karat and any weight, but the arithmetic is that short, and knowing it is how you check anyone else's number.
How much is 1 gram of 14k gold worth today?
$80.20 in melt value at the current $4,276.60 spot price. 18k is $103.12 a gram, 10k is $57.29, and 22k is $126.04. These are melt figures — the metal content — not what a buyer will hand you.
How much do gold buyers actually pay?
Less than melt, always, because the spread is how they earn. How much less depends on who they are and how much you have: a high-street cash-for-gold counter, a local jeweller, a coin dealer and a refinery each work from a different cost base, and a refinery that quotes a high percentage usually has a minimum quantity attached. Get more than one written offer, ask for it as a percentage of melt rather than a lump sum, and use the second row of the calculator to see the gap in dollars before you decide. A quote you cannot express as a percentage of melt is not a quote you can compare.
What is a pennyweight, and why do buyers use it?
A pennyweight (dwt) is 1/20th of a troy ounce, about 1.555 grams. It is a normal unit in the US jewellery trade and a completely normal one to be quoted in. It is worth converting to grams or ounces before comparing two offers, because a price per pennyweight and a price per gram look similar and differ by more than half.
Does the karat stamp tell me the real gold content?
Usually, and not always. Stamps can be worn, wrong or absent, plating can be stamped as solid, and some older or imported pieces use marks that do not map cleanly onto the US karat scale. A buyer will test acid or XRF before quoting; that test, not the stamp, is what the offer is based on. If a stamped piece tests lower than its mark, ask to see the test.
Should I sell scrap gold or hold it?
That is a different question from what it is worth, and this page cannot answer it for you. What it can say is that the decision is usually about form rather than metal: jewellery is the most expensive way to hold gold, because you paid for craftsmanship you cannot sell back. If the point of the position is exposure to gold, the comparison of what each wrapper costs to hold is linked below.
Related Reading
Before you sell, and after
Physical Gold vs Gold ETF vs Tokenized Gold
If the scrap is going out the door, this is the question about what the proceeds should become — what each way of owning gold actually costs you.
Scrap Silver Calculator
The same job for silver: sterling, coin and continental purities, after sorting out plate and weighted handles.
Junk Silver Calculator
The same job for pre-1965 US silver coins: melt value per coin and per bag at the live silver spot price.
Gold Holding Cost Calculator
What it costs to keep gold over time in each wrapper — storage, spreads, and fund fees compared side by side.
How to Sell Gold
Where the offers come from, which ones are worth taking, and the paperwork to expect before you hand anything over.