Indication of Gold Content

There are two ways on how to label the contents of gross gold and the not processed gold that is commonly being used today in the countryside. The fineness and percentage system is more commonly used among the miners and refiners. This system breaks all the impurities in a thousandth in order to label the fineness (purity) of the gold sample. For example, a piece that contains 90% of gold and a 10% of impurities would be labeled as .999 fine; 88% of the contents of gold would be labeled .880 fine; 75% of gold content would be registered as .750 fine and so on.

In this system, .999 fine is used to indicate pure gold. The fineness system is commonly used among the assayers to indicate the contents of the analyzed samples.

The other system that is sometimes used to indicate the contents of gold in samples or pieces is the “carat system.”  The method is normally used in the jewelry industry, and is based on the 24 point system, being the content of 100% equals 24 carats, 50% of gold content would be 12 carats, 75% gold contents would be 18 carats, and so on.