I have touched on this before – but I wanted to restate this in a concise table. It is important to know how much gold you really have in your jewelry, and also to understand that with Gold, the higher the karat the better. Most Jewelry falls into 10, 14, and 18k, but 9k, 22k and 24k are also out there. 24k being the highest, which is pure gold. I will layout a table – but also understand that its just math, divide your karat mark by 24 to get these #s (10 divided by 24 for instance).

10k is 41.7% gold
14k is 58.5% gold
18k is 75% gold
9k is 37.5% gold
22k is 91.6% gold
24k is 99.9% gold or pure gold

This plays an important role when understanding the value of the jewelry you have. The more you know the better! The higher karat of your jewelry, the more it is worth by weight.