Methodology¶

This page documents exactly how every number in the study was derived, so that any reader, journalist, or appraiser can reproduce it independently.

The melt-value formula¶

Melt value is the intrinsic commodity value of the pure-gold content of an item, ignoring craftsmanship, brand, gemstones, or dealer margin. It is a pure function of three inputs:

melt_value (USD) = weight × fineness × (spot_price / 31.1034768)

where:

Symbol	Meaning	Source / definition
`weight`	Item weight in grams	Measured (scale)
`fineness`	Decimal purity = `karat / 24`	Karat stamp / hallmark
`spot_price`	Gold price per troy ounce, USD	Commodity market quote
`31.1034768`	Exact grams per troy ounce	International definition of the troy ounce

Per-unit forms¶

The same formula in the three common trade units:

Per gram: melt = grams × (karat/24) × (spot / 31.1034768)
Per pennyweight: melt = dwt × (karat/24) × (spot / 20) (1 oz t = 20 dwt exactly)
Per troy ounce: melt = oz_t × (karat/24) × spot

Why 0.999 and not 1.000 for 24K?¶

"24-karat" is a hallmark meaning "all gold, no base-metal alloy." In practice, refined investment gold is 99.9% ("three-nines") or 99.99% ("four-nines") pure, never a theoretical 100%. The GoldGramPrice engine (and this study) uses 0.999 as the 24K fineness, which is why a 1-ounce 24K bar realizes $3,346.65 rather than the full $3,350 spot.

Karat table (source of fineness values)¶

The five purities below are the common US jewelry standards and match the KARATS constant in the GoldGramPrice compute engine.

Karat	Fineness	Notes
24K	0.999	Investment / bullion grade
22K	0.9167	Common in South Asian / Middle Eastern jewelry
18K	0.75	Premium Western jewelry
14K	0.585	Dominant US jewelry purity
10K	0.4167	Legal minimum "gold" in the US

Constants¶

Constant	Value	Definition
Grams per troy ounce	`31.1034768`	Exact, by international agreement
Pennyweights per troy ounce	`20`	Exact (1 dwt = 1/20 oz t)
Grams per pennyweight	`1.55517384`	Derived: 31.1034768 / 20

Spot reference¶

All melt values in the study use a spot reference of $3,350 / troy oz, recorded 2026-06-19. This is the snapshot value in the GoldGramPrice metals.json / computed-values.json artifacts and is labeled isLive: false, source: seed — i.e., it is a documented reference figure, not a live market quote.

The 7-day window on the study's transparency note (June 12–19, 2026) is taken from the history.json spot series and is explicitly reported as a snapshot, not a multi-year market history. No trend, regression, or annualized figure is derived from it.

Reproducibility¶

Every number in the melt table reproduces from the formula above. For example, the 14K per-gram value:

$63.01/g = (3350 / 31.1034768) × 0.585
         = 107.693... × 0.585
         = 63.00...  (rounded to $63.01)

A reference Python implementation of the full table:

GPO = 31.1034768   # grams per troy ounce
DPO = 20           # pennyweights per troy ounce
SPOT = 3350        # USD per troy oz (seed snapshot)

KARATS = [(24, 0.999), (22, 0.9167), (18, 0.75), (14, 0.585), (10, 0.4167)]
for karat, fineness in KARATS:
    print(karat, round(SPOT * fineness, 2),     # per oz t
                   round(SPOT / GPO * fineness, 2),  # per gram
                   round(SPOT / DPO * fineness, 2))  # per dwt

This produces the table verbatim. The same arithmetic, applied against a live spot price and any custom weight, is exposed by the GoldGramPrice gold melt-value calculator.

Limitations¶

Spot is a snapshot. The $3,350 reference is a single point in time; melt values scale linearly with spot, so multiply every table value by (new_spot / 3350) to refresh.
Melt value ≠ resale value. Dealers pay below melt (a "discount to spot"); this study reports intrinsic metal worth only, not transaction prices.
No alloy credit. The base-metal portion (copper/silver/zinc in 10K–18K) is treated as zero-value, per standard melt convention.
Purity assumes hallmark accuracy. A stamped 14K piece is taken at 0.585; real items may assay slightly above or below.