Gold Buying Tips
Understanding karats and how gold purity is generally expressed and measured.
Purity is one of the biggest factors behind what a piece of gold jewellery is actually worth. Understanding how it is measured can help you make sense of the number quoted to you during a valuation.
Understanding Karats
Gold purity is commonly expressed in karats, with 24K representing (near) pure gold, and 22K, 18K and 14K representing progressively lower proportions of gold mixed with other metals for durability.
Hallmarking and Certification
In India, BIS hallmarking is a widely recognised way of indicating a jewellery item's certified purity, and checking for a hallmark is a useful first step when buying or assessing gold.
Common Purity Testing Methods
Purity can be assessed through several standard methods, including touchstone testing and electronic karat meters, which help estimate the proportion of gold in an item.
Why Purity Affects Your Valuation
Since lower-karat gold contains a smaller proportion of actual gold by weight, purity directly affects the calculated value of an item, alongside its weight and the day's gold rate.
Purity, weight and rate together — not any single number alone — determine what your gold is really worth.
Bringing It Together
Whether you are buying or selling, asking how purity was assessed is a reasonable and useful question — a transparent process should be able to explain it clearly.
