Carats Vs Karats: What is the difference?
If you are in the business of using, buying or even wearing gemstones and precious metals, you should be aware that these two words mean very different things. Shopping for Gold, Silver, Palladium, precious stones, findings and materials should make much more sense after you read this article about Carats vs Karats.
Carat
A Carat is a weight measurement in reference to precious gemstones such as Diamonds, Sapphires, Rubies, etc. Many people think a carat is referring to the size of the gemstones, however, it is a measurement of weight. While the weight does effect the size of the gemstones, a carat is not a measurement of length, mass or volume. The Carat, along with the purity of the gemstone is what determines the price of the precious stones.
Karat
A Karat is the measurement of the purity of gold. When 24 Carat Gold Price is referenced, what what really means is 24 Karat Gold Price. Gold itself is very soft, and like silver, it needs to be alloyed with other metals to make it stronger and less expensive. 24 karat gold is considered pure gold, or 100% gold. While many people think 24 karat gold is the best quality you can buy, the soft metal is less durable and it can scratch or damage easily. To prevent this, gold is alloyed with metals such as silver, copper and zinc. When producing white gold alloys, nickel, copper and zinc are used. So, the karat is measured by the ratio of gold to the alloyed metal. 18 karat gold is 3/4 gold or 0.750 gold, 14 karat gold is 14/24 gold or 0.583 gold, etc.
Although the karat does determine the value of the gold, it does not tell us the price we are paying for gold. After you have determined the karat of gold you would like, the final step in determining the price of your gold is it’s weight, how much gold are you purchasing? Precious metals are measured in Troy Ounces, one Troy Ounce is equal to about 31.1 grams. There are 12 ounces per Troy pound. Oh yea, and did I mention that the price of precious metals is variable?
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X = 24\,\frac{M_g}{M_m}
where
X is the carat rating of the material,
Mg is the mass of pure gold or platinum in the material, and
Mm is the total mass of the material.
Therefore 24-carat gold is fine (99.9% Au w/w), 18-carat gold is 75% gold, 12-carat gold is 50% gold, and so forth.
Historically, in England the carat was divisible into four grains, and the grain was divisible into four quarts. For example, a gold alloy of \tfrac{381}{384} fineness (that is, 99.2% purity) could have been described as being 23-carat, 3-grain, 1-quart gold.
The carat system is increasingly being complemented or superseded by the millesimal fineness system in which the purity of precious metals is denoted by parts per thousand of pure metal in the alloy.
The most common carats used for gold in bullion, jewelry making and by goldsmiths are:
* 24 carat (millesimal fineness 999 or higher)
* 22 carat (millesimal fineness 916)
* 21 carat (millesimal fineness 875)
* 20 carat (millesimal fineness 833)
* 18 carat (millesimal fineness 750)
* 15 carat (millesimal fineness 625)
* 14 carat (millesimal fineness 585)
* 10 carat (millesimal fineness 417)
* 9 carat (millesimal fineness 375)
* 8 carat (millesimal fineness 333)
* 1 carat (millesimal fineness 042)
The word carat is derived from the Greek kerátion (κεράτιoν), “fruit of the carob”, via Arabic qīrāṭ (قيراط) and Italian carato. Carob seeds were used as weights on precision scales because of their reputation for having a uniform weight. (However, a 2006 study[1] by Lindsay Turnbull and others found this to not be the case – carob seeds have as much variation in their weights as other seeds.[2]) This was not the only reason. It is said that in order to keep regional buyers and sellers of gold honest, a potential customer could retrieve their own carob seeds on their way to the market, to check the tolerances of the seeds used by the merchant. If this precaution was not taken, the potential customer would be at the mercy of “2 sets of carob seeds”. One set of “heavier” carob seeds would be used when buying from a customer (making the seller’s gold appear to be less). Another, lighter set of carob seeds would be used when the merchant wanted to sell to a customer.
In the distant past, different countries each had their own carat, roughly equivalent to a carob seed. In the mid-16th century, the Karat was adopted as a measure of gold purity, roughly equivalent to the Roman siliqua (\tfrac{1}{24} of a golden solidus of Constantine I). As a measure of diamond weight, from 1575, the Greek measure was the equivalent of the Roman siliqua, which was \tfrac{1}{24} of a golden solidus of Constantine; but was likely never used to measure the weight for gold.[3]
[edit] Terminology
22/22K – a quality mark indicating the purity of gold most popularly used in India. This purity was adapted and practiced by the big jewellers and was later passed to jewel smiths. The first 22 signifies the “Skin purity”, the purity of the top layer of the gold jewelry, and the second 22 signifies that after melting purity of the gold jewellery will be 22-carat, or 91.67% of pure gold. This system is used to show consistency in the quality of the gold.
This practice was pioneered and introduced in the early mid-1980s by Nemichand Bamalwa & Sons of Kolkata, India (which now is represented in gold price in India today), sparking a revolution in India as it forced jewellers to indicate correctly the after-melting purity, and heightened consumer awareness made it a most sought-after stamp or quality mark.
This symbol or stamp is very popular on the gold jewellery business in Asian countries like India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Yemen, and Persian Gulf countries.