Gold Price Per Pennyweight Today
$214.55 per pennyweight (dwt)
Gold spot $4,291.00/oz · updated
Quick answer: Pure gold is worth $214.55 per pennyweight (dwt) at the spot price as of September 23, 2026. A pennyweight is 1/20 of a troy ounce, or 1.555 grams. For jewelry, 14k gold is worth $125.15 per dwt and 10k is worth $89.40. Those are the numbers to hold up against a buyer's "per penny" offer.
| Unit / amount | Equivalent | Value |
|---|---|---|
| 10k per dwt | 41.67% gold | $89.40 |
| 14k per dwt | 58.33% gold | $125.15 |
| 18k per dwt | 75.00% gold | $160.91 |
| 22k per dwt | 91.67% gold | $196.67 |
| 24k per dwt | 99.90% gold | $214.34 |
| Troy ounce | 31.1035 g | $4,291.00 |
| Gram | 1 g | $137.96 |
| Pennyweight (dwt) | 1.5552 g | $214.55 |
| Kilogram | 1,000 g · 32.15 ozt | $137,959 |
| Tola | 11.6638 g | $1,609.12 |
| 1 dwt (1.56 g) | pure gold | $214.55 |
| 5 dwt (7.78 g) | pure gold | $1,072.75 |
| 10 dwt (15.55 g) | pure gold | $2,145.50 |
| 20 dwt (31.10 g) | pure gold | $4,291.00 |
What a pennyweight is, and why the jewelry trade still uses it
A pennyweight is a unit of the troy system: 24 grains, 1/20 of a troy ounce, 1.55517 grams. Its abbreviation, dwt, combines d (from the Roman denarius, the old British symbol for a penny) with wt for weight. The name is literal. In medieval England a silver penny weighed one pennyweight, so the coin and the weight were the same thing.
Over time, the troy system's other units fell out of daily use, but the pennyweight survived in one trade: American jewelry. Casting grain, gold wire, sheet and scrap are still commonly priced per dwt in the US. Refiners' settlement sheets list weights in dwt. Many bench jewelers think in pennyweights the way bakers think in cups. Most of the world moved to grams, but the US scrap-gold business largely didn't.
That matters to anyone selling gold, because a buyer quoting "per penny" and a seller thinking "per gram" are working in different units. One pennyweight is 1.555 grams, so a per-dwt price looks about 55% bigger than a per-gram price for exactly the same gold. An offer of "$100 a penny" is not the same as "$100 a gram". It's the equivalent of about $64 a gram.
Most price websites show ounces and grams only. This page exists so a pennyweight quote can be checked against the live market without a calculator.
Reading a buyer's pennyweight quote
When you sell jewelry to a gold buyer, pawn shop or refiner, the conversation often goes like this: they weigh the lot in pennyweights, test the karat, and offer a price per dwt for each karat group. To judge that offer, turn it into a percentage of melt value.
The method:
- Note the karat they tested (say 14k) and their price per dwt (say $94).
- Look up today's melt value per dwt for that karat. For 14k it's $125.15.
- Divide the offer by the melt value. $94 ÷ $125.15 = 75% of melt.
That single percentage tells you how the offer compares. Across the trade, refiners working with larger lots typically pay 90% or more of melt, mail-in buyers roughly 70–90%, local buyers and jewelers roughly 60–85%, and pawn shops often well under that. These are typical ranges reported by the trade, not quotes.
Three things to confirm before you accept:
- Which karat did they test? A 14k piece tested and priced as 10k is priced for about 29% less gold than it contains. Ask to see the test, and ask them to write down the karat.
- Are they weighing in dwt or grams? Watch the scale, and make sure the unit on the display matches the unit in the offer.
- Is the weight net of stones and non-gold parts? Steel clasps, springs and stones don't count as gold, but they should be removed or deducted openly, not guessed at.
Selling gold?
The per-dwt value above is melt value, which is the ceiling, not an offer. Refiners and mail-in buyers typically pay a percentage of melt, local shops less, and pawn shops less still. Ask for the price per pennyweight and the karat they tested at.
Buying instead?
You'll pay above spot How buying gold bullion works →
Weighing gold in pennyweights at home
You don't need a jeweler's balance to check a buyer's weight. An inexpensive digital pocket scale with a dwt mode (most have one, alongside g, oz and ozt) is accurate to 0.01 g, and that's enough for jewelry.
Check the scale first. A US nickel weighs 5.000 grams when new, which is 3.215 dwt. Put one on the scale. If it reads within a few hundredths, the scale is fine for this purpose. Circulated nickels lose a little weight to wear, so a stack of several evens that out.
Weigh by karat group. Sort pieces by their stamp (10k, 14k, 18k) and weigh each group separately, because buyers price each karat separately. Write the weights down before you visit a buyer. Then you can compare their scale reading with your own, and a mismatch is worth asking about.
Worked examples
1. A bag of broken 14k chain weighing 12 dwt. 12 dwt × $125.15 = $1,501.85 in melt value. A mail-in buyer paying 80% would offer about $1,201.48.
2. A 10k class ring weighing 8 dwt. 8 dwt × $89.40 = $715.17. Class rings often contain a synthetic stone and a hollow back, so the gold weight may be less than the total weight.
3. Converting a gram weight to dwt. An 18k bracelet weighing 31 grams is 31 ÷ 1.555 = 19.9 dwt, worth 19.9 × $160.91 = $3,207.54 in melt value.
For mixed lots, the scrap gold calculator takes each karat as its own line, in dwt or grams.
Gold price in other units
Per ounce: $4,291.00 · Per gram: $137.96 · Per kilo: $137,959 · Bar prices by size · Karat pages: 10k · 14k · 18k · 22k · 24k
FAQ
How many grams is a pennyweight?
1.55517 grams. There are 20 pennyweights in a troy ounce and about 643 in a kilogram.
Why does my gold buyer use pennyweights?
It's the traditional unit of the US jewelry and refining trade. It isn't a trick, but you should convert the offer yourself so you can compare it with the per-gram prices you see elsewhere.
What does "dwt" stand for?
d for denarius (the old British penny symbol) and wt for weight: pennyweight.
Is a pennyweight the same as a penny's weight today?
No. A modern US cent weighs 2.5 grams, which is more than a pennyweight. The name comes from medieval English silver pennies.
How much is 1 dwt of 14k gold worth?
$125.15 in melt value at today's price. That's 1.555 g × 58.3% gold × the per-gram spot price.
Data sources: Spot price via api.gold-api.com · COMEX futures (GC=F) via Yahoo Finance. Prices are for informational purposes only and may be delayed. Figures on this page were generated . Gold is quoted in US dollars per troy ounce.