Carats or Karats

History

Let’s begin by examining where these words originated. Carob, often used as a chocolate
substitute, is grown on a tree that produces small, edible seedpods, which contain carob beans.
These beans are known to be unusually consistent in size and weight. Due to these consistent
characteristics, the beans were used in ancient times as a reference to measure units of weight.
The word carat is derived from the Greek word “keration”, which describes the practice of weighing
gold and gemstones against the seeds of a carob tree. Today the international standard weight of
one carat is 200 milligrams or .2 grams.

Carat - a unit of weight

Carat is the unit of weight used to measure the weight of diamond and gemstones. Keep in mind
that carat is only a unit of weight, not size. A one carat sapphire will be physically smaller in size than
a one carat diamond because sapphires are a more dense (heavier) stone than diamonds. The term
carat is abbreviated as c. or ct. when describing a solitaire diamond. T.C.W is the abbreviation used
to describe the total carat weight of diamonds when more than one diamond is used.

Karat - a unit of proportion

Karat is the unit of proportion used for measuring the purity of gold. It describes how much gold
is contained in a particular item. K or KT are the abbreviations used to signify karat. The measurement
scale for gold is based on a range of 1 to 24 parts, with 24 karat gold being 100% pure. Pure gold
is too soft for ordinary use and is typically alloyed with other metals such as copper, silver and nickel to
increase hardness.

10 karat gold is the minimum karat designation that can still be called gold in the United States.
Today the most common measurements used for gold are grams(gm) or pennyweights (dwt).
Gold transactions worldwide are calculated using the Troy ounce. There are 31.3 grams of gold
in a Troy ounce. There are 20 pennyweights for every once of gold.