What 22K gold is worth and how dealers price it
22K is 91.67% gold, the classic 'crown gold' standard also used in sovereigns and Krugerrands. It is soft enough to be worked by hand into intricate designs, but still durable enough for daily-wear bangles.
Look for the hallmark 916 or 22K. 22K is typical of Indian and Gulf wedding jewellery and older British sovereigns. Indian 22K sets are frequently soldered with lower-karat solder and may contain lac or wax fillings in hollow parts, which a buyer will deduct after testing.
Dealers weigh the piece, deduct stones and non-gold parts, and multiply the net weight by 0.9167 to get the fine gold content. They then multiply by the GBP 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 40 g 22K wedding bangle pair holds 36.67 g of fine gold. Enter 40 g and 22K in the calculator above to see its live melt value in GBP. Bring any purchase receipts showing 916 BIS or Gulf assay marks — they save testing time and strengthen your negotiating position.
In the UK, gold dealers must be registered for anti-money-laundering supervision and check ID. Hallmarks are enforced by the Assay Offices in London, Birmingham, Sheffield and Edinburgh, which makes British marks among the most reliable.
Developers can pull the same figure programmatically: 22K gold price per gram API.