Why is gold measured in Karats?
This stems back to ancient times in the Mediterranean /Middle East, when a karat became used as a measure of the purity of gold alloys (see next Question 5). The purity of gold is now measured also in terms if fineness, i.e parts per thousand. Thus 14 karats is 14/24th of 1000 parts = 583 fineness. 5. What is a Karat? A Karat (Carat in some other countries) was originally a unit of mass (weight) based on the Carob seed or bean used by ancient merchants in the Middle East. The Carob seed is from the Carob or locust bean tree. The carat is still used as such for the weight of gem stones (1 carat is about 200 mg). For gold, it has come to be used for measuring the purity of gold where pure gold is defined as 24 Karats. How and when this change occurred is not clear. It does involve the Romans who also used the name Siliqua Graeca (Keration in Greek, Qirat in Arabic, now Carat in modern times) for the bean of the Carob tree. The Romans also used the name Siliqua for a small silver coin whi
Related Questions
- Does the fineness or purity of the gold as measured in percent or karats contained in the gold bullion coins that WCM sells affect the amount of pure, 24 karat gold within each type of coin?
- Does anyone know anything about the secret store discount in the Barton Boutique on Gaia Online?
- Why is gold measured in Karats?
