14K Gold Price & Value Calculator
Instantly calculate the raw melt value of your 14 Karat (58.3% pure) gold rings, chains, and scrap jewelry against today’s live commodity spot price.
Everything You Need to Know About 14K Gold
If you live in the United States, 14 Karat gold is by far the most common type of gold jewelry you will encounter. It is the absolute industry standard for engagement rings, wedding bands, thick Cuban link chains, and vintage estate jewelry. Because it is so ubiquitous, determining the accurate 14k gold price per gram is the most important step before attempting to sell your items to a pawn shop or refinery.
What Exactly is 14 Karat Gold?
Pure 24K gold is incredibly soft—so soft that a ring made of pure gold would bend, scratch, and warp during everyday wear. To fix this, jewelers alloy (mix) pure gold with harder metals like copper, silver, zinc, and nickel.
In the karat system, 24 Karats represents 100% purity. Therefore, 14 Karats means the item is 14 parts pure gold and 10 parts alloy metals. Mathematically, 14 divided by 24 equals 0.5833. This means that 14K gold is exactly 58.3% pure gold.
European jewelers do not typically use the Karat system. Instead, they use a millesimal fineness system (parts per thousand). Because 14K gold is 58.3% pure, European 14K jewelry is stamped with the number 585. If your jewelry says “14K”, “14KT”, or “585”, it calculates at exactly the same melt value in our tool above.
Grams vs. Pennyweight (dwt) for 14K Gold
When you take your 14K gold to a local pawn shop or “cash for gold” buyer, you might notice they weigh your items in Pennyweights (dwt) rather than grams. One pennyweight is equal to 1.555 grams. Historically, pennyweights were used by jewelers to make the math easier when converting to Troy Ounces (there are exactly 20 pennyweights in 1 Troy Ounce).
Our 14k gold calculator natively supports both grams and pennyweights. Always verify which unit the buyer’s scale is set to, as confusing grams for pennyweights will result in a massive miscalculation of your asset’s true value.
Scrap Payouts: What Will a Buyer Actually Pay for 14K?
The total value generated by the calculator above is the Melt Value—the objective, mathematical value of the fine gold content trading on the live market today. However, local buyers are running businesses with physical overhead, refining fees, and assay costs.
If you are selling 14K gold scrap (broken chains, old rings, single earrings), expect a reputable dealer to offer you between 70% and 80% of the melt value shown in our calculator. If you are selling to an online, high-volume refinery, you may secure 85% to 90%. Never accept an offer lower than 65% of the live melt value for 14K gold.