What 23K gold is worth and how dealers price it
23K contains 95.8% gold with a small addition of silver or copper. It keeps almost the rich orange-yellow colour of pure gold while being marginally harder.
Look for the hallmark 958 or 23K. 23K is typical of Thai and South-East Asian chains and bangles. Thai 'baht' chains in 23K are often sold by weight in baht units (about 15.2 g), so check whether a receipt quotes baht or grams before comparing offers.
Dealers weigh the piece, deduct stones and non-gold parts, and multiply the net weight by 0.958 to get the fine gold content. They then multiply by the CHF 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 15.2 g one-baht Thai chain holds 14.56 g of fine gold. Enter 15.2 g and 23K in the calculator above to see its live melt value in CHF. Few Western buyers see 23K often, so ask them to test rather than assume it is 22K — the difference is worth roughly 4.5% of melt.
Switzerland is home to several of the world's largest gold refineries, and Swiss buyers are used to precise assays. Local precious-metal control marks guarantee the fineness of Swiss-made jewellery.