Gold and silver price calculator

How the gold calculator works

Melt value is what the precious metal in a piece is worth at the spot price. Nothing else counts: not the design, the brand or the stones. The sum has three steps.

1. Weight times purity gives the fine metal: the grams of pure gold, silver or platinum inside.
2. Fine grams divided by 31.1035 give troy ounces. Spot prices are quoted per troy ounce.
3. Troy ounces times the spot price give the melt value in Canadian dollars.

The spot price box fills itself with the latest indicative price from Gold API, in Canadian dollars, with the time it was quoted. You can type over it with any price you like, such as a dealer's quote. If no live price is available, the box stays empty and the calculator asks you for one. It never makes up a number.

Everything runs in your browser. What you type is not sent to us and is not stored.

A worked example: a 14K gold chain

Take a chain that weighs 10 grams on a kitchen scale set to grams and is stamped 14K. We use an example gold price of C$5,400 a troy ounce. That is a round number for illustration, not today's price.

• 14K means 14 parts gold in 24, or 58.33% gold. The chain holds 5.833 grams of fine gold.
• 5.833 grams is 0.1875 troy ounces.
• 0.1875 troy ounces at C$5,400 is a melt value of C$1,012.75, or C$101.27 for each gram of the chain.

The table under your result shows the same weight at every purity, so you can see what 10K, 18K or 22K would change.

How much is 14K gold worth per gram?

It depends on the spot price that day, so the calculator works it out live. The rule is simple: the price per gram of pure gold is the spot price divided by 31.1035, and a karat piece is worth its share of that. 24K is 100% gold, 22K is 91.67%, 18K is 75%, 14K is 58.33% and 10K is 41.67%. Pick a karat, type 1 in the weight box with grams as the unit, and the result shows the value of one gram.

Is a troy ounce the same as an ounce?

No. Precious metals are weighed in troy ounces. Canada's Weights and Measures Act defines the troy ounce as 480 grains, which works out to 31.1035 grams. The ounce on a kitchen or postal scale is 28.3495 grams. A troy ounce is about 10% heavier, so a weight read in kitchen ounces and entered as troy ounces gives a value that is about 10% too high. If your scale shows grams, use grams.

What do the karat and fineness marks mean?

Under Canada's Precious Metals Marking Regulations, a karat mark is a share of 24: 18K means 18 parts in 24 are gold. A decimal mark is the share itself, so .999 means 999 parts in 1,000 and .585 means 58.5%. A gold piece may legally fall a little short of its mark: up to 3 parts in 1,000 without solder and 7 with solder. Sterling silver is at least 925 parts in 1,000. A platinum mark needs at least 95% platinum.

If your piece shows a mark that is not in the list, choose "Another purity" and type the percentage.

Why a buyer will offer less than melt value

Melt value is not an offer. A dealer, refiner or pawn shop that buys from you pays less than spot, because they have to test, refine and resell the metal. A seller charges a premium over spot when you buy, so bars and coins cost more than their melt value. How big those gaps are depends on the product and the business: ask for the buy price and the sell price in writing, and compare them with the melt value here.

Our guide to where to buy gold in Canada compares the Mint, banks, dealers and online sellers.

What this calculator leaves out

• Collector or numismatic value, and the value of gemstones and craftsmanship.
• Dealer spreads, assay and refining fees, shipping and insurance.
• Sales tax and income tax on a sale.
• Metal that is not there: plated or filled pieces hold far less gold than their weight suggests.
• Palladium and other metals.