Sometimes, it can be confusing to people to understand the terms used in the context of jewelry. Karats and Carats are both associated with jewelry and not many people outside jewelry industry know the difference. As everyone tends to buy some piece of jewelry in its lifetime so it is very important to know some basic terms of jewelry.
What is Karat?
A karat, when used with gold, is a unit of purity. 24-karat gold is pure gold, but usually you mix gold with a metal like copper or silver to make jewelry (because pure gold is too soft). Each karat indicates 1/24th of the whole. So if a piece of jewelry is made of metal that is 18 parts gold and 6 parts copper, that is 18-karat gold.
What is Carat?
A carat is a unit of weight for diamonds and other gemstones. One carat equals 200 milligrams (0.200 grams). Prior to 1907, countries had their own measures of what one carat equals. The system was standardized in 1907 at the Fourth General Conference on Weights and Measures with the adoption of the current carat, equal to 200 mg.
In Short
- Karat is the measure of the purity of a metal, especially gold; carat is the measurement of the weight of precious stones, especially diamonds.
- Karat is measured on a scale of 1-24; a carat is one-fifth of a gram or 200 mg. and is divided into 100 points.
- Karat is most commonly denoted as “K”; carat is most commonly denoted as “Ct.”
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