What your melt value figure means
The calculator converts weight and purity into troy ounces of pure metal and multiplies by the live spot price. That is the metal in the item, which is the floor under its value rather than a price anybody will transact at.
- The melt value itself What the metal in it is worth
- Spot is the price of pure metal in wholesale quantity, so the figure assumes no fabrication, no shipping, no insurance and no dealer on either side. Every real transaction happens at a distance from it, and the size of that distance is the thing worth knowing.
- Against a dealer's sale price You pay above melt
- A one-ounce American Eagle typically sells 5% to 8% over spot and a tenth-ounce runs closer to 18%, because minting costs barely fall as the metal content does. Our coin premium calculator prices a specific quote against the typical range for that product.
- Against a dealer's buy price You are paid at or slightly under melt
- Bids on standard bullion usually sit at or just below spot, which means the round trip costs the premium you paid on the way in. That spread is the reason the cheapest product to buy is generally the best product to hold, whatever the sales argument for a fancier one.
What is the spot price of gold?
Spot is the wholesale price for immediate delivery of one troy ounce of gold. It moves continuously through the trading week and is benchmarked twice a day by the LBMA auction in London, at 10:30 and 15:00 London time. Every quote you are given on a coin is built on top of it.
Nobody buys a physical coin at spot. A coin has been minted, shipped, insured and held in inventory before it reaches you, and the dealer's premium covers all of that plus margin. Across the fourteen IRA-approved products we track that premium runs from 3% on a large bar to 18% on a tenth-ounce coin, so spot is the floor of the conversation rather than the price.
The unit catches people out more often than the price does. A troy ounce is 31.1035 grams and the ordinary ounce on a kitchen scale is 28.3495, which makes the troy ounce about 9.7% heavier. Weighing a bar at home and reading the result as troy ounces overstates the holding by roughly a tenth, and on a ten-ounce bar that is a four-figure error.
What the spot price is, and why nobody pays it
The spot price is what one troy ounce of pure gold trades for right now in wholesale quantity between institutions, set continuously across London, New York and Zurich and quoted for near-immediate settlement. It is the reference every other price in the market is built from, which makes it the right number to start from and the wrong number to expect to transact at.
Retail prices sit above it and dealer bids sit at or just below it, and the gap is not margin alone. An ounce has to be refined to at least 99.5% fineness to be IRA-eligible, struck into a specific product, assayed, packaged, insured and shipped before it reaches a depository, and those costs are real whoever is charging them. Across the fourteen IRA-approved products we track the retail gap runs from 3% on a large bar to 18% on a tenth-ounce coin.
Knowing the melt value is what turns a quote into a comparison. Weight and fineness are matters of arithmetic and the spot price is public, so the metal content of any product can be established exactly, and everything above that figure is the part worth asking about. That is the whole use of this calculator, and it is the same test our coin premium tool runs against the typical range for a specific product.
How to work out what your metal is worth
Four steps, and the second is where nearly every error on this page comes from.
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Pick the metal
Gold and silver are quoted in the same unit and at wildly different prices, so a mistake here is obvious immediately. Both prices refresh in your browser against the same source.
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Enter the weight and check the unit
This is where most errors happen. A troy ounce is 31.1035 grams and the ordinary avoirdupois ounce is 28.3495, so a weight typed as ounces when it was really troy ounces comes out about 10% light.
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Set the purity if you know it
A one-ounce American Gold Eagle weighs more than an ounce and contains exactly one ounce of gold, because it is 91.67% pure and alloyed to a heavier total weight. Scrap and jewellery are where purity matters most, since 14 carat is 58.3% gold.
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Read the melt value, then remember what it is not
Melt value is the metal in the item. It is not what a dealer will pay you, and it is not what a coin costs to buy, because both of those sit on either side of it by several percent.
What each input means, and where to find it
The stamp on a bar or the specification for a coin gives you three of these four.
- Metal
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Whichever of the two you are holding. Both are quoted per troy ounce in the same market, and the ratio between them is itself a followed indicator, which our gold-silver ratio tracker plots back to 1968.
Where to find it Whatever you are holding or being quoted on.
- Weight
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How much of it there is. The calculator accepts grams, kilos, ordinary ounces and troy ounces, and converts between them, because the market quotes in troy and almost every household scale does not.
Where to find it The stamp on a bar, the specification for a coin, or a scale. A bar is usually marked with both its weight and its fineness.
- Purity
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The proportion that is actually the metal, as a decimal or a carat figure. Bullion bars are typically 99.99%, a Gold Eagle is 91.67%, and jewellery runs anywhere from 37.5% at 9 carat to 75% at 18 carat.
Where to find it The hallmark or the stamp. A number like 999, 916 or 750 is a fineness in parts per thousand.
- Spot price
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The wholesale market price for immediate delivery of one troy ounce. Fetched live above, with the timestamp beside it, and benchmarked twice a day by the LBMA auction in London.
Where to find it Already here. Our gold price today tracker carries the same figure with the fix behind it.
How melt value is calculated
Weight, converted to troy ounces, multiplied by purity, multiplied by the live price.
The calculator converts the entered weight into troy ounces, multiplies by the purity to get the pure metal content, and multiplies that by the live spot price. Spot is fetched at build so the figure is in the HTML before any JavaScript runs, then refreshed in your browser with the timestamp shown beside it. Conversions use the exact definitions rather than rounded ones, so a gram is 1 ÷ 31.1035 troy ounces and not 0.0322.
melt value = (weight in troy ounces) × purity × spot price
- weight
- Converted to troy ounces at 31.1035 grams each
- purity
- Fineness as a decimal, 0.9999 for bullion and 0.583 for 14 carat
- spot
- Live wholesale price per troy ounce, benchmarked by the LBMA fix
What melt value leaves out
- The dealer premium on buying, which runs 3% to 18% on IRA-approved products.
- The dealer discount on selling, which is typically 2% to 3% below spot on bullion and far wider on jewellery.
- Any numismatic or collector value above the metal content, which this deliberately ignores.
- Assay costs, which a refiner charges on unmarked or unfamiliar material.
- Sales tax on a personal purchase, which varies by state and does not apply inside an IRA.
Three holdings, valued at spot
A coin, a box of jewellery and a silver bar, all with gold at $3,400 and silver at $41.
A one-ounce Gold Eagle
Someone checking what the metal in a single American Gold Eagle is worth, with spot at $3,400.
- Metal
- Gold
- Weight
- 1 troy oz
- Purity
- 91.67%
$3,400 of gold, because the coin is alloyed to contain a full ounce.
The Gold Eagle is the exception that catches people. It weighs 1.0909 troy ounces in total and holds exactly one troy ounce of gold, so its melt value is a clean multiple of spot even though its purity is not.
An inherited jewellery box
82 grams of assorted 14-carat gold jewellery, with spot at $3,400.
- Metal
- Gold
- Weight
- 82 g
- Purity
- 58.3%, 14 ct
The lot holds about $5,225 of gold.
A buyer offering $3,000 for that lot is paying 57% of melt, which is common and is worth knowing before the conversation starts. Jewellery also carries no IRA eligibility at all, since 58.3% is far below the 99.5% minimum the tax code sets.
A kilo silver bar
One kilogram of 999 silver with spot at $41 per troy ounce.
- Metal
- Silver
- Weight
- 1 kg
- Purity
- 99.9%
About $1,318 of silver.
A kilo is 32.15 troy ounces, not 35.27 ordinary ounces, and using the wrong one overstates the value by about 10%. Silver's lower price per ounce makes the absolute error smaller and the percentage error identical.
The weights and purities worth memorising
Four figures cover the conversions and the eligibility rule that decide almost every question here.
- 31.1035 g One troy ounce
The unit every precious-metals market quotes in. The ordinary avoirdupois ounce is 28.3495 grams, which makes a troy ounce about 9.7% heavier.
- 32.15 Troy ounces in a kilogram
Against 35.27 ordinary ounces. Getting this one wrong on a kilo bar is a $10,000 error at current gold prices.
- 99.5% Minimum fineness for gold in an IRA
Set by 26 U.S. Code 408(m)(3), with an explicit statutory exception for the American Gold Eagle at 91.67%, while silver has to reach 99.9%.
- 3% to 18% What a dealer adds on top
The premium over melt on the fourteen IRA-approved products we track, from 3% on a ten-ounce bar to 18% on a tenth-ounce coin. Spot is the floor, not the price.
What people get wrong about the spot price
The first two are unit errors and the second two are about what a dealer will actually pay.
Should I be able to buy a coin at the spot price?
No, nobody buys a physical coin at spot, because spot prices the metal in the wholesale market, and a coin has been minted, distributed, insured and held in inventory before it reaches you, all of which costs money. The gap is 3% to 18% depending on the product, and our premium calculator prices a specific quote against it.
Is an ounce of gold the same as an ounce of anything else?
No, not in this market, where a troy ounce is 31.1035 grams and the ounce on a kitchen scale is 28.3495, so weighing bullion at home and reading the result as troy ounces overstates the holding by about 10%. On a ten-ounce bar that is a four-figure error.
Is melt value what a dealer will pay me?
No, a dealer buying scrap or coins bids below melt, and on jewellery the offer is often 50% to 70% of it. Melt is the reference point for the conversation rather than the outcome of it, and knowing it is what makes a low offer visible.
Can jewellery go into a gold IRA?
No, it cannot, because the tax code requires 99.5% fineness for gold bullion in an IRA and jewellery runs 37.5% to 75%. Rare and graded coins are excluded for the same reason, since the rule turns on metal content rather than on value.
Spot price questions
What is the difference between a troy ounce and an ounce?
A troy ounce is 31.1035 grams and an ordinary avoirdupois ounce is 28.3495, so the troy ounce is about 9.7% heavier. Precious metals are quoted exclusively in troy ounces and almost nothing else is, which is why a bar weighed on a kitchen scale reads high and why the mistake is worth four figures on a ten-ounce bar.
Why is the dealer price higher than spot?
Spot is the wholesale price of the metal for immediate delivery, and a coin is a manufactured product that has been minted, shipped, insured and held in inventory. The dealer's premium covers that plus margin, and it runs 3% to 4% on bars, 5.5% to 7% on one-ounce coins and up to 18% on fractional coins.
How much gold is in a one-ounce Gold Eagle?
Exactly one troy ounce, despite the coin being 91.67% pure. The US Mint alloys it with silver and copper to a total weight of 1.0909 troy ounces so that the gold content is a full ounce, which is why its melt value comes out as a clean multiple of spot.
Can I put scrap gold or jewellery in an IRA?
No. The tax code requires 99.5% fineness for gold bullion held in an IRA, with a statutory exception only for the American Gold Eagle. Jewellery at 9 to 18 carat runs 37.5% to 75% pure and does not come close, and neither do rare or graded coins, which are excluded as collectibles regardless of their metal content.
How often does the spot price change?
Continuously through the trading week, and it is benchmarked twice a day by the LBMA auction in London at 10:30 and 15:00 London time. The figure here is fetched at build and refreshed in your browser, with the timestamp beside it, so you can see how recent it is rather than having to trust it.
What is the gold-silver ratio?
How many ounces of silver one ounce of gold buys, which is simply one spot price divided by the other. It has run from under 20 to over 100 since 1968 and is watched as a relative-value signal between the two metals. Our gold-silver ratio tracker plots the whole series.