Gold
Karat, fineness, troy weight, melt value and the difference between a benchmark and a buyer's offer.
Explore gold →Guides and calculators for physical metals
Understand a metal price before you buy or sell.
Check what a quoted number means, calculate contained-metal value, and compare a real offer without confusing spot, melt, scrap and retail prices.
Price guides, calculators and selling checklists
What do you need to know?
Choose a resource based on the metal, material and transaction.
Check a quote
Identify a credible source, unit, currency, timestamp and quote type before comparing numbers.
Calculate metal value
Bring your documented reference price and inspect the fine-metal and payout assumptions.
Prepare to sell
Sort material, protect collectible value and compare like-for-like offers before deciding.
Understand the market
Use cited long-form research when you need context behind weights, standards and trade.
Gold, silver, copper, platinum and palladium
Each metal uses different quote conventions
Precious metals are commonly quoted per troy ounce. Copper is commonly discussed per pound or metric tonne. The distinction matters.
Silver
Sterling, coin silver, bullion, flatware and the premiums or deductions that change a sale price.
Explore silver →Copper
Exchange benchmarks, pounds versus tonnes, cathode and the practical economics of scrap grades.
Explore copper →Platinum
Investment bars, jewelry fineness and why a smaller retail market can create wider spreads.
Explore platinum →Palladium
Industrial demand, jewelry purity and the care needed when estimating recoverable metal value.
Explore palladium →From market price to item value
A market price is only one part of an item's value
A useful valuation separates the market reference from the material inside an item and the costs of completing a real transaction.
Reference price
Identify the instrument, source, currency, unit, timestamp and whether the number is bid, ask, midpoint, fixing or futures.
Contained metal
Convert gross weight into fine-metal weight using karat, fineness, assay or a defensible recovery estimate.
Melt or benchmark value
Multiply fine-metal quantity by the comparable unit price while preserving the calculation so it can be checked.
Real transaction
Account for premiums, refining, contamination, testing, shipping, inventory risk, dealer margin and collectible value.
Metal value calculators
Calculate from a price you trust
Each calculator accepts the published reference price you choose and shows its formula instead of hiding assumptions behind a single result.
Gold value calculator
Model 9K through 24K gold, multiple weight units and a buyer payout percentage.
Calculate gold value →Silver melt calculator
Calculate fine, sterling, Britannia, coin and custom-purity silver values.
Calculate silver value →Precious-metal weights
Convert grams, kilograms, troy ounces, ordinary ounces, pennyweights, grains and pounds.
Convert a weight →Market history and scenarios
Research on how metals are priced and traded
Featured cited papers trace how weights, assay, coinage, central banks, mints, merchant networks, refineries and exchanges made metals saleable—then test clearly labeled future scenarios.
The history of precious-metals trading
Gold, silver, platinum and palladium from weighed metal to bullion coins, funds and digital claims.
Read the research →The history of gold trading
How gold was weighed, tested, coined, benchmarked, financialized, recycled and sold.
Read the research →Central banks and precious metals
How coin reserves, standards, Bretton Woods, official sales, custody and modern gold buying changed from 1609 to 2026.
Read the institutional history →Central-bank gold reserves, 2026–2051
Three conditional tonnage paths for diversification, custody, sanctions, collateral and tokenized settlement—not an official projection.
Explore the reserve scenarios →The history of selling silver
Five thousand years of scales, coinage, hallmarks, global trade, industry and modern markets.
Read the research →The history of selling copper
From Bronze Age ingots to merchant finance, exchange warrants, cathode contracts and graded scrap.
Read the research →The history of selling platinum
How an unusual white metal was made credible enough to trade, price, recover and recycle.
Read the research →The history of palladium trading
From an anonymous launch to industrial supply, autocatalysts, bullion and circular markets.
Read the research →Before comparing prices
Record the source, unit, currency and time
A number labeled only “metal price” is incomplete. Before using one, identify what is priced, where, in which unit and currency, at what time, from which source, and whether that value is actually available to a retail seller.