Category Archives: Forum Questions

I have a 14 karat gold ring that weighs 0.3 ounces on my postal scale. Can you tell me what the value of gold in this ring is and what I should expect to get for it from a refiner? – Bob in Columbia, MO

To determine the value of gold in your 14K gold ring, there are a few issues to consider:

• Weight – Unfortunately postal scales are not accurate enough when one is considering the valuing of a gold item, but in this case, we measured the ring that you sent in and found it to actually did weigh 8 grams or 0.2822 ounces.

• Percentage of Gold – 14K Gold is supposed to contain 58.24% gold while the rest is typically made up of copper, zinc, nickel, and other metals.  We ran your ring through our X-Ray analyzer and found that it actually contained 66.89% gold.  See Video Clip.

• Price of Gold – On July 22, the price of gold closed at $951.42 per ounce.  Keep in mind that gold is valued in troy ounces and Americans typically think of an ounce as what is termed a avoirdupois ounce.  Troy ounces actually weigh a little more than avoirdupois ounces so you actually have less than .2822 troy ounces of gold.  To get your value in troy ounces, you would actually have to multiply .2822 avoirdupois ounces by .912.

So, the amount of pure gold in your particular 14K gold ring weighing .2822 avoirdupois ounces with a gold percentage of 66.89% was 0.18877 ounces.  To figure out its value in troy ounces, we mulitplied this number by .912 to get 0.172 Troy Ounces.  Mulitplying this by today’s rate for gold of $951.52 and your gold is worth $163.79.

Of course, the refiner needs to melt this into a form that someone wants and make a profit so you should expect anywhere from 70% to 90% of this value from a refiner.  Most refiners won’t deal in quantities this low.  At Arch Enterprises, we do, but we pay on a scale that ranges from 80% for those who send in less than 1 ounce of pure gold to over 90% for those sending in over 2 ounces.

My husband and I own a jewelry and watch repair store and for years have been saving the spent watch batteries for recycling. We understand there is some silver content in many of these batteries, but mainly we just want to know that they are recycled. What can we do with these? – Gwen in Memphis, TN

Refiner Response – Gwen, it is admirable of you to consider the environment when thinking of how to dispose of these spent watch batteries. Many watch batteries are actually referred to in the industry as “silver oxide batteries” and as the name implies, they contain a small amount of silver. Most precious metal refiners are not going to be too excited about recycling these unless you have hundreds of pounds of them. Since we at Arch Metal Refining process so much silver, we are able to pay out approximately $10 to $15 per pound depending on the quality and quantity of batteries you have to refine. Obviously, the primary benefit is knowing that these batteries are being recycled and disposed of properly, but the fact that you can make a little money on them can be an added bonus.