Knowledge is power – and its ever more the truth with any gold items you have. I wanted to discuss for a moment the karat system that Gold uses, so you understand about how much gold you actually have.

To start – Jewelry in the US is typically 10, 14, or 18k. It is important to understand what this number is telling us – it is the percentage of pure gold in the mix of metals that make up your jewelry.

It is all based on a 24k system – with 24 karat gold being pure gold. 10k means 10 parts out of 24 are gold. This comes to approximately 41.7% of the weight of the item being gold (not including any stones or other additions to the jewelry or piece). The balance of the metal alloy can be any number of things – normally a non-magnetic metal.

So, to find the percentage of gold in your item, you would just divide the karat mark by 24, and there ya go. 14k is approximately 58.5% gold. 18k is approximately 75% gold.