Scrap Gold Calculator
Enter the carat and weight of your gold or silver to see its melt value at today's spot price, and roughly what a UK buyer might pay for it.
How the calculator works
Gold and silver are priced per troy ounce (31.1035g) of pure metal. A 9ct ring is only 37.5% gold, so the calculator works out the pure metal content first, then values it at the latest spot price. That figure is the melt value: the most the metal itself is worth.
Example: 10g of 9ct gold holds 3.75g of pure gold. At today's spot of £3,125.60 per troy ounce, that is a melt value of about £376.84.
Gold purity by carat
| Carat | Hallmark | Gold content | Melt per gram today |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9ct | 375 | 37.5% | £37.68 |
| 14ct | 585 | 58.5% | £58.79 |
| 18ct | 750 | 75% | £75.37 |
| 22ct | 916 | 91.67% | £92.12 |
| 24ct | 999 | 99.9% | £100.39 |
What will a buyer actually pay?
No buyer pays the full melt value, because refining costs money and they need a margin. London Gold Exchange says specialist UK dealers typically pay 84% to 90% of spot for scrap gold, and that high-street buyers often pay less. Gold Traders publishes a scrap rate of around 91% of spot. The payout range above uses those figures; it is an estimate, not a quote.
Before you sell, get more than one quote, make sure items are weighed in front of you, and check whether anything is a collectable coin rather than scrap. A gold Sovereign or a rare hallmark can be worth more than its metal: look it up in the coin catalogue first.