5 minutes and you may know much your gold is worth!
How much is my gold worth? Asked Amanda
Dear Alan, My name is Amanda and I’m from Denver, Colorado. I inherited some gold from my grandma. Some rings, a nice necklace, a gold crown and a diamond ring. How much is my gold worth and are times good to sell?
Amanda from Denver in Colorado
Hi Amanda, It’s a pleasure for me to answer your questions. I’m working with gold and jewelry for over 20 years. I’m more than happy to tell you more about the value of your gold and the perfect time to sell.
Alan Jensen, reDollar expert for precious metals
Amanda wants to know how much her gold is worth
Amanda: I inherited some gold rings from my granny. They look really old-fashioned. One ring is damaged and in really bad condition. The other rings look better but I wouldn’t wear them anymore. Two rings have stones mounted, a green stone and a red stone. What can I do with such items and how much is my gold worth?
Alan: I’m happy for you that you got some gold. Gold is a very valuable material and highly desirable since thousands of years. It doesn’t matter in which condition your gold is because gold is gold and gold trades for the current material value. You explained that two gold rings also have stones mounted, a green stone and a red stone. You shouldn’t be too optimistic but a red stone could be a ruby and a green stone could be an emerald. If that would be the case, the gems could have some value too, but to make a binding statement regarding the gemstones we would need to see the stones through our microscope to tell you more. To be honest, in the majority of cases when we speak about every day jewelry, mounted gemstones in old-fashioned jewelry don’t reflect a significant value, except the gems have a certain size (carat weight).
Amanda: In one of your emails you asked me for gold markings. I could spot a gold marking on my gold necklace. It says just 18K. What does that mean and how does it affect the value of my necklace? How much is my gold necklace worth?
Alan: Your “18K” marking tells us more about your gold’s purity. Your necklace is made of 18 karat gold. This sort of gold is very common and more worth than 14K gold. 18K gold means that the gold your necklace is made of contains 75% of pure gold. You have a pretty necklace, Amanda. I asked you to weigh your necklace and you did a good job, using your mum’s kitchen scale. You told me that your scale shows about 17.5 grams. That is not bad, because a gold necklace of that weight sells for $998.65 today.
Amanda: Thank you! That’s a fair amount of money. It’s a very strange feeling to have my grandmas gold teeth here. To tell you the truth, it’s a bit disgusting but I think it also has a value, correct? I read on your website “Sell dental gold” that a gold crown can sell for good money. Hard to believe! Please tell me more.
Alan: You sent me a photo of your grandma’s gold crown. It looks like a solid yellow gold crown but it would be necessary to have it in my laboratory to find out more about the exact gold content. Normally, I use our X-Ray analyzer to check the gold content. A dental crown like yours can be made of 14K gold or sometimes even made of 18K gold. The value of the gold depends on the quality and can be in a range of $30 to $80, depending on the weight. For me, it seems to be a very small crown, that’s why I see the value more at $45 than at $80. But anyway, it’s a small piece of gold and it’s worth something.
Amanda: I also have a diamond gold ring. I know the stone is a diamond because grandma often told me that it was a valuable diamond ring. I could spot a marking and again it says 18K. You told me to check the diameter of the diamond. I did so and it is 0.55 cm. What does that mean? How much is a small diamond worth and how much is 18k gold worth?
Alan: Let’s assume you have a real diamond ring with diameter of 0.55 cm. That’s a nice diamond ring and you can expect some money more for your ring than just the gold value, depending on the stone’s quality and cut. The cut and the quality are essential for the value determination. Such rings sell in the range of $100 and $350, depending on the mentioned facts. Without a doubt it’s a nice piece but not rare or very special.
Amanda: What about selling my gold. Are times good to sell my gold?
Alan: In comparison to the gold price from the longer past, times are very good. Compared with the gold price from 2012, times could be better. But consider that you own a small amount of gold. The gold price fluctuation wouldn’t affect the value of your gold significantly. Today an ounce of 24K gold is worth $2623.98.
Other questions about the value in gold:
Our expert Alan explains: How much is a gram of gold worth?
JD from Houston asked: How much is yellow gold worth?
Elisabeth from Tallahassee asked: How much is dental gold worth?
Helpful information about the topic:
Scrap gold has to undergo a melting and refining process: Gold Refinery
Used gold sells in ounces or pennyweights. The gold price is the most important factor to calculate the selling price: Gold Price per Pennyweight