What Is A Karat?

A karat refers to the purity of the gold used. Pure gold is known as 24 Karat gold. However, pure gold is rarely used in jewelry because it is too soft. Instead, it is alloyed with a mixture of metals like silver, copper, nickel, and zinc to give it strength and durability. For example, if you have a ring marked 14K that means the ring is 58.5% pure gold. This is very important in determining what your gold is worth. The weight of your item, the metal fineness and current price for gold will all be used to calculate your item's value.

Below are common marks that indicate the karat.