What melt value is
Melt value is what the metal inside an object would be worth as refined metal. Take the weight, take the share of that weight which is actually gold, and price it at the benchmark. Everything else about the object is set aside: the brand on the clasp, the hours of bench work, the stones, the box it came in and what somebody paid for it in 1998.
That sounds reductive, and it is, but it is also exactly how a scrap buyer sees your jewellery. They are not buying a bracelet. They are buying $930.22 of recoverable gold in the form of a bracelet, priced at the benchmark set on , less what it costs them to get it out.
The formula
Three numbers and two multiplications. Weight in grams, times the purity fraction, times the spot price per gram. Spot is quoted per troy ounce, so the gram price is the ounce price divided by 31.1034768. At the current benchmark that is $132.89 a gram of pure gold.
A 12 gram 14k chain is 12 times 0.5833, which is 7 grams of gold, priced at $930.22. Nothing in that calculation is proprietary or hard. A dealer who will not show you the arithmetic is choosing not to.
| purity | stamp | per gram | per dwt | per troy oz |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24k | 999 | $132.76 | $206.46 | $4,129 |
| 22k | 916 | $121.81 | $189.44 | $3,788 |
| 21k | 875 | $116.28 | $180.83 | $3,616 |
| 20k | 833 | $110.74 | $172.22 | $3,444 |
| 18k | 750 | $99.67 | $155.00 | $3,099 |
| 14k | 585 | $77.52 | $120.55 | $2,411 |
| 12k | 500 | $66.44 | $103.33 | $2,066 |
| 10k | 417 | $55.37 | $86.11 | $1,722 |
| 9k | 375 | $49.83 | $77.50 | $1,549 |
| 8k | 333 | $44.30 | $68.89 | $1,377 |
What melt value leaves out
Four things, and any of them can be worth more than the gold. Craftsmanship and design, which is why a signed Cartier piece is never scrap. Stones, which are not metal and which refining destroys. Numismatic value, which can make a common-looking silver dollar worth many times its silver. And the simple fact of being a finished, sellable object, which is worth something to a jeweller who can put it in the window rather than the crucible.
Melt is therefore the floor for anything interesting and the correct answer for anything broken, mismatched or unmarked. Tangled chain, single earrings, bent class rings and dental gold are melt. A hallmarked Georgian ring is not, and neither is a dated coin.
Melt value against a real offer
Nobody pays melt. The gap is not a swindle, it is the cost of turning your piece into metal: testing it, melting a mixed lot, assaying the result to know what is in it, refining out the copper and the nickel, and carrying the price risk in between. On top of that sits the buyer's margin, which varies more than the refining cost does.
In practice a pawn shop pays 50% to 60% of melt, a cash-for-gold buyer 55% to 70%, a local jeweller 65% to 75%, and a mail-in refiner 80% to 85% on a lot large enough to be worth an assay. The calculator above prints those bands next to the melt figure rather than making you work them out at the counter. What buyers actually pay goes through where each band comes from and when each kind of buyer is the right one to walk into.
Using it as a negotiating floor
Know the melt value before you go in, and know it per gram. If an offer is quoted as a lump sum, divide it by the weight and compare. If it is quoted per pennyweight, divide by 1.555 to get a gram figure before you compare it with anything. And if a buyer will not weigh in front of you or will not say what karat they are paying you for, that is the entire answer to whether the offer is fair.
Melt value questions
What does melt value mean?
It is the market worth of the metal contained in an object, if that object were melted down and refined into deliverable metal. It counts the gold and nothing else: not the design, the maker, the stones or the receipt.
Is melt value the same as what I will be paid?
No. Melt value is the ceiling. A buyer has to test, melt, assay and refine the piece before it becomes the metal the benchmark prices, and those costs plus their margin come out of your side. Expect 50% to 60% of melt from a pawn shop and 80% to 85% from a mail-in refiner.
Can something be worth more than its melt value?
Often, and it is the main reason to stop before selling. A signed piece, a period design, a dated coin or anything with good stones can be worth several times its metal. Melt is the floor for those items, not the answer.
Does melt value include the stones?
No. Stones are not metal and are usually destroyed or discarded in refining. A buyer will either deduct their weight or pull them first. If you have anything above a small accent stone, have it valued separately before the piece goes in the melt pile.
Why does the melt value change every day?
Because the spot price does. Gold trades continuously around the world and the benchmark is published each trading day, so a figure quoted last week is already stale. The number on this page is recalculated from the current benchmark each time the page loads.
How is melt value calculated?
Weight in grams, times the purity fraction, times the spot price per gram. The spot price per gram is the price per troy ounce divided by 31.1034768. That is the whole formula, and it is the same one every dealer uses.
Does melt value apply to gold-plated items?
Effectively not. Plating is measured in microns and a boxful may hold a fraction of a gram of gold, less than the cost of recovering it. Gold-filled is different, because the bonded layer is a stated fraction of the total weight.