A pair of 22 carat gold earrings on a white display stand

The gold

What the number onthe gold means.

Carat is simply the fraction of the metal that is gold, out of twenty-four. Everything else about a piece — the colour, the price, what it is worth in twenty years — follows from that one number.

Raking light across the disc links of a 22 carat gold bracelet, every engraved line in relief

Twenty-four parts,counted in carats.

Pure gold is 24 carat. A 22 carat piece is 22 parts gold and 2 parts alloy; a 9 carat piece is 9 parts gold and 15 parts something else. The number is a recipe, not a grade.

The alloy is there for hardness, and the trade-off runs one way: more gold means deeper colour, more weight in the hand and more value at the scale; more alloy means a harder, paler piece that costs less and returns less.

Neither end is wrong. But they are different purchases, and the difference is worth understanding before the first serious piece — which is why buying your first gold has a page of its own.

22 carat91.6% gold: The deepest colour and the traditional bridal weight. Softer, so the work is made heavier to carry it.
21 carat87.5% gold: A little harder, holds fine detail well. The standard across the Gulf and much of South Asia.
18 carat75% gold: The fine end of Australian chain-store retail. Paler and harder wearing, with less gold in the metal.
9 carat37.5% gold: Mostly other metals, and the everyday carat at Australian chain stores. It wears well and it is cheap, but it is jewellery first and gold second.

We keep 21 and 22 because our customers buy gold as gold — a thing that holds value, not just a thing that holds a stone.

The colour is the carat

Put a 22 carat bangle beside an 18 carat one and nobody needs the hallmark. High-carat gold is unmistakably yellow, and for a bridal set or an Eid gift that colour is the point.

The scale settles it

A high-carat piece is priced by weight against the day’s rate, and weight is the part that does not date. Wear it for thirty years and a scale still has the last word on it. How the pricing works →