What are Karats?

Karats, spelled ‘carats’ outside of North America, are the little numbers stamped on a piece of gold in the format of ‘xxK’ or ‘xxKT’ and it serves as a reference for the type of gold it is stamped on. It refers to the actual gold content in that particular piece of jewelry. Here’s some info on Karats:

• The higher the Karat, the more pure the gold.

• Lower Karat jewelry contains less gold and more of an alloy metal, such as copper, nickel(not as common anymore), silver, or palladium.

• Other metals are added to gold to strengthen it from its malleable state or even to enhance color, such as in rose gold.

Karats serve as a way to determine just how pure that gold really is! 24 Karats is the highest Karat you can buy with the most purity that is readily available for purchase. Knowing this little piece of information is vital to you being able to calculate the gold content on your very own! Say you purchase a ring that is 14K gold, since the maximum amount of Karats you can have is 24K, you divide the 14 Karats by the 24 max Karats, and you get .583, or 58.3% pure gold. Is it getting a bit easier to understand now? Let’s move on!