14k gold filled price per gram

A piece marked 1/20 14K GF is 5% 14k gold by weight, bonded over brass. Since 14k is itself 58.33% pure, the actual fine gold content is about 2.9% of the total weight. A 10 gram gold filled bracelet holds roughly 0.29 grams of fine gold.

That is not nothing, but it is around one twentieth of what the same bracelet would be worth in solid 14k. Anyone quoting you a solid gold price for gold filled has either not checked or is hoping you will not.

Recovering gold from filled stock means dissolving the base metal, which is slow and produces waste that has to be handled properly. The gold recovered from a single bracelet does not cover the cost. This is why high street shops turn gold filled away rather than lowball it.

Specialist refiners do buy it, but by the kilo. If you have a few pieces the practical answer is that resale value is close to zero and the jewellery is worth more worn than melted.

Look for the stamp first. GF, 1/20 or 12KGF means filled. A plain 14K or 585 with no fraction means solid. Anything reading GP, GEP or HGE is plated, which is thinner still and worth nothing at all as scrap.

Where a piece is unstamped, weight and wear tell you a lot. Gold filled feels lighter than solid gold of the same size, and worn edges show a colour change where the base metal breaks through.

A magnet is a useful first pass but not a proof. Gold is not magnetic and neither is brass, so a piece that sticks to a magnet is certainly not solid gold, while one that does not stick may still be filled or plated over a non magnetic base.

The low scrap value says nothing about whether it is worth wearing. The bonded layer is roughly a hundred times thicker than electroplating, so gold filled survives years of daily wear without brassing through, and it does not provoke the reactions that cheap plated jewellery causes in people sensitive to nickel.

It is what a lot of well made costume and mid market jewellery has always been, and for anyone who wants the look and the durability without the metal cost, it is a sensible purchase. Just buy it understanding that it is jewellery rather than a store of value.

Volume changes the answer. Refiners who handle filled stock work in kilo quantities, and an accumulated box from a closed shop or an estate can be worth processing. Below that, the shipping and assay costs exceed the recovery.

The better route for small quantities is almost always resale as jewellery. A wearable gold filled chain sells for more on a second hand marketplace than any refiner will pay for its metal, by a wide margin.