Editor’s Note
**Editor’s Note:** This article clarifies common misconceptions about gold purity, emphasizing that 24-carat gold is too soft for jewelry and that most pieces are made from 22-carat gold. Readers are advised to decide on carat levels beforehand to avoid being misled.
When buying gold jewelry, you are often so excited that you may forget you could be cheated. If a jeweler claims to be giving you 24-carat gold jewelry, they are not only lying but also cheating you. 24-carat gold is the purest form and is too soft to make jewelry. Most jewelry is made from 22-carat gold, which contains 91.6% gold. To make the jewelry strong and durable, silver, zinc, copper, or cadmium is added.
Decide in advance how many carats of gold you want. Because the quality and price of gold jewelry vary with carat. The higher the carat, the more expensive the gold.
When buying gold, pay attention to its quality. It is best to buy gold only after seeing the hallmark. A hallmark is a type of government guarantee and is issued by the country’s sole agency, the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS). The advantage is that when you sell it, no depreciation cost will be deducted, meaning you will get the true value of the gold.
Each carat has a different hallmark number:
– 23 carat: 958
– 22 carat: 916
– 21 carat: 875
– 18 carat: 750
– 14 carat: 585
– 9 carat: 375
Carat gold means 1/24 percent gold. For example, if the price of 24-carat gold is 27,000 rupees per ten grams, then the price of 22-carat gold is 27,000 x 22/24 = 24,750 rupees. Similarly, you can calculate the price of 18-carat and lower carat gold yourself.
The price of jewelry includes: the price of gold, making charges, and GST.
Let’s understand this with an example:
Suppose the price of 10 grams of 22-carat gold is 27,350 rupees. You want to buy a gold chain weighing 9.6 grams. What will be its price?
– Price per gram of gold: 2,735 rupees
– Price of 9.6 grams of gold: 2,735 x 9.6 = 26,256 rupees
– Suppose the jeweler’s making charges are 10%: 10% of 26,256 = 2,625.60 rupees
– Cost of gold chain: 26,256 + 2,625.60 = 28,881.60 rupees
– GST at 3%: 3% of 28,881.60 = 866.44 rupees
– Total bill: 28,881.60 + 866.44 = 29,748.04 rupees
Obviously, you won’t have the four paise, and the jeweler won’t insist on it, so you will pay 29,748 rupees.
