What is gold fineness and how does it relate to the price of jewelry?

If we have two identical pieces of jewelry, one made of 333 gold and the other of 585 gold, the first should be almost twice as cheap as the second. It should be. Unfortunately, customers' lack of knowledge is often exploited, and jewelry of relatively low value is sold at very high prices. So what is this fineness and how should it translate into price?

According to the law,precious metal jewelry is jewelry in which the precious metal content is not lower than the content corresponding to the lowest fineness applicable to a given precious metal. The fineness of investment and commercial gold is the ratio of the mass of pure precious metal contained in the alloy to the mass of the alloy. In other words, jewelry will be considered gold if it contains at least 33.3% gold, as this is the lowest applicable fineness for gold. Not much? That's right, it's very little. It might as well be considered copper or other metal jewelry (depending on the alloy used), as the remaining 66.6% of the alloy will be other metals. Such jewelry will be, or at least should be, relatively inexpensive. What other finenesses are there?

• 999, or 99.9% gold in the alloy,
• 960, or 96% gold in the alloy,
• 750, or 75% gold in the alloy,
• 585, i.e., 58.5% gold in the alloy,
• 500, or 50% gold in the alloy,
• 375, or 37.5% gold in the alloy,
• 333, or 33.3% gold in the alloy.

• 750, or 75% gold in the alloy,
• 585, i.e., 58.5% gold in the alloy,
• 375, or 37.5% gold in the alloy,
• 333, or 33.3% gold in the alloy.

So what is the significance of the fineness mark? It has a significant impact on the value of jewelry, as it indicates the "gold content in gold." It should therefore also have a significant impact on the price. If we have two identical pieces of jewelry, one made of 333 gold and the other of 585 gold, the second will contain almost twice as much gold as the first. This does not mean that the price of the first should be half as much. It will never be half the price, as the price of the product includes not only the value of the gold, but also the costs of production and sale, but the difference in price should be significant. The problem arises when this is not the case. Unfortunately, the customer's lack of knowledge is often exploited and jewelry of relatively low value is sold at very high prices. It is therefore worth paying attention to the fineness.