What 21K gold is worth and how dealers price it
21K is 87.5% gold and is the everyday standard across Egypt, Saudi Arabia and much of the Gulf, where jewellery is bought largely as a store of value.
Look for the hallmark 875 or 21K. 21K is typical of Egyptian, Levantine and Gulf gold jewellery. In those markets 21K is priced openly by the gram plus a making charge, so owners are often surprised that an EU buyer pays melt value only — the making charge is not recovered.
Dealers weigh the piece, deduct stones and non-gold parts, and multiply the net weight by 0.875 to get the fine gold content. They then multiply by the USD spot price per gram and apply their payout percentage — usually 60–75% of melt at shops and pawnbrokers, 80–90% at specialist buyers.
Worked example: a 25 g 21K Gulf necklace holds 21.88 g of fine gold. Enter 25 g and 21K in the calculator above to see its live melt value in USD. Many EU buyers misread 875 as silver standard (875 silver exists). Make sure the test identifies it as gold.
In the US, cash-for-gold shops are regulated at state level and many require ID and a short holding period. Dollar spot prices are the global benchmark, so USD quotes react first when the market moves.
Developers can pull the same figure programmatically: 21K gold price per gram API.