The number a jeweller quotes for your old gold is almost never the number it is worth. Here is how to do the maths yourself in ten minutes.
When you walk into a jeweller with 200g of family gold and ask "what is it worth?", the answer you get back is a negotiation opening, not a valuation. Here is what to know before that conversation.
The three prices for the same gold
- Melt value — the pure gold content × today's rate. This is the only honest number.
- Exchange value — melt value minus a "wastage" charge, usually 6–12%. Different jewellers use wildly different wastage.
- Buy-back value — often 15–20% below melt value, because the jeweller is doing you a favour.
If a jeweller quotes you a single number without breaking it into these three, walk out.
Doing the maths yourself
- Weigh each piece separately on a jewellery scale (kitchen scales are ±0.5g).
- Note the karat — usually stamped: 916 = 22K, 750 = 18K.
- Convert to pure gold: 22K piece × 0.916 = pure gold weight.
- Multiply by today's 24K rate per gram (see the top-of-page ticker on our Marketplace and Valuation pages).
That is your melt value. Any figure above 92–94% of this in an exchange is fair.
What Shivormi's Valuation tool adds
Our valuation calculator does three things a manual calculation cannot: 1. Applies typical stone-content deduction (6–8%) automatically — because stones in the piece are usually not gold. 2. Adjusts for typical purity loss on very old pieces (2–3%). 3. Compares your usable gold value against today's admin-published rate, updated daily.
Red flags in a jeweller's valuation
- "Your gold is 20K, not 22K" — without a hallmark test, this is a guess designed to lower your quote.
- Refusal to weigh each piece separately.
- A flat wastage rate quoted before the actual weighing.
- Discounts on the melt value "because it's an old design" — old designs do not lose gold content.
Never sell family gold on the same day you walk in. Get two valuations from two independent jewellers before deciding. And always try redesigning first — a 40g heirloom bangle redesigned into two modern bangles saves the story and the gold.
