9ct gold

Spot price dictates, and it's not acceptable for jewelry in the US. Incidentally, the c should be a K. Gold fineness is specified as Karat, diamonds are weighed by carats.

Harold

Not quite true. The English language is never straightforward :) In the UK, Australia and New Zealand "carat" is still used as a unit of measurement for gold.

Chris

Gold content is 9/24 of the gross weight, depending on the alloy. Bugs

It is, in theory, always 9/24, regardless of the alloy. Where variations come into play is in the honesty of the person doing the alloying, and laws that regulate. Soldered items used to be permitted a half karat plus or minus, plus an additional variation of plus or minus one half karat for alloying. Thus, it wasn't unusual to find items marked ten karat that assayed nine karat. I offer you class rings as an example, proven time and again when refined in volume. They were consistently just better than nine karat. The savings to the large corporations that make such rings must have been staggering.

Harold

Which I just had verified by a friend in the UK. I stand corrected. It came as welcome news to me, so I thank you for enlightening me.

Harold