What is a Gram of Gold?

These are the most frequently asked questions we receive at GoldFellow. It's problematic for everyone as it doesn't relate to any measurement we currently use in our daily life. Pennyweights, however are still commonly used in the U.S. jewelry industry but we prefer to use the more accurate and globally recognized Grams (metric) as our unit of measure.

There are 20 pennyweights also referred to as DWT in an ounce. There are also 31.1 grams in an ounce. As we are talking about precious metals I'll use gold in my example throughout this post.

Many of our customers are weighing their valuables on home kitchen or postal scales of either mechanical or digital make. Most measure in grams and ounces, particularly when weighing food. The grams shown on your scale are not the same as the grams used in gold! You are measuring on a device that uses 28 grams per ounce while gold is measured in troy ounces. There are 31.1 grams per Troy ounce. The simplest way to use your home scale is to multiply the number showing as ounces by 20. That's it. If your scale shows 3.5 oz you have approximately 70 pennyweight. 1.5oz is about 30 pennyweight and so on. (Same for silver and platinum)

Ok, now for measuring your gold in grams. The scale shows 3.5 ounces. Multiply by 31.1 and it comes to 108.85 grams of gold. If it's 1.5 oz x 31.1=46.65 grams.


Lastly, if you would like to know a price per gram, follow this formula. $20 per pennyweight is$12.86 per gram. To convert simply divide $20 by 1.555=$12.86. Try $18 dwt divided by 1.555 and you get $11.58 gram.

Hope this is helpful!

Michael Gusky aka Mr. GoldFellow