Gold Cartage

The cartage of gold can be considered its most important and best selling aspect. Carats, sometimes spelled Karats, measure the purity of gold. Gold is one of the world’s most beautiful precious metals, and powerfully resistant to corrosion, but on its own pure gold is very soft and vulnerable. To make jewelry and other commonly consumed gold products, gold is combined with other materials to overcome its soft nature and make it durable enough for everyday use. This is when carats come in, the higher a carat rating on a piece of gold, the higher “percentage” of that piece is pure gold. Here’s a chart published by the World Gold Council detailing the percentages of gold carats:



24 carat gold is understood to be the most pure of all gold, consisting in 99% gold and only 1% other material. This is the minimum carat allowed for jewelry labeled as “pure gold”.

22 carats is considered to be 91.6% gold, and is quite popular in India where a large majority of the world’s gold is consumed.

14 carat can be seen in the US as a common selling gold carat, however anything lower than 10 carats is not allowed to be sold as gold.

source: http://www.gold.org/jewellery/about_gold_jewellery/caratage/