How about using Grams for gold weight:blowup:

[Bobbylikesgold]

As this forum has the heading ~ The Prospecting Forum is for all of you who do search for gold the world over. I suggest the gram weight be used to describe future gold discussion , reason being is it's used world wide

What do you say Steve ?

Bobby .

 

[Larry (IL)]

The pennyweight is the common weight used in the valuation and measurement of precious metals. A rough estimate to convert dwt to grams is one dwt is roughly 1.5 grams but there are simple calculators on the net for precise conversions. The pennyweight also eliminates the confusion between the international avoirdupois ounce and the international troy ounce and pounds since precious metals are weighed in troy.

A pennyweight (abbreviated dwt) is a unit of mass that is equal to 24 grains, 1/20 of a troy ounce, 1/240 of a troy pound, approximately 0.054857 avoirdupois ounce and exactly 1.55517384 grams.

 

[steve herschbach]

Back in school I was fine with the country going metric but we did not. Troy ounces, pennyweights, and grains are the standard here in the US. If I started talking grams to some old miner he would probably run me off his claims

Seriously, I think anyone dealing in gold needs to be versed in all methods used in weighing gold. Grams works for me because 3 grams sounds like more than 2 pennyweight but since 1 pennyweight equals 1.55517384 grams the opposite is true. I see a lot of gold being sold in grams for this very reason. Most people weighing gold jewelry finds seem to be heading towards grams, and I think honestly that it is often just because that is the easiest scale to obtain. You have to go out of your way to get a scale that weighs in pennyweight.

Anyway, I will start using grams myself in addition to Troy and if others want to that is fine. If you prefer otherwise that is fine also. I think the main thing is to be very clear in what you use. When I refer to grains I always emphasize I mean grains, not grams as it tends to read the same in a small font.

That said I do tend to use grains (480 grains per Troy ounce) when talking small gold. I find lots of two grain or half grain pieces and I guess I would need to really shift mental gears to be thinking terms of grams.

1 Troy Ounce equals 20 Pennyweight equals 31.1035 Grams equals 480 Grains

1 Pennyweight (dwt) equals 1.56 grams To convert pennyweight to grams multiply by 1.56

1 Gram equals 15.43 Grains

1 Grain equals 0.0648 Gram

1 Troy Ounce equals 1.0971 Avoirdupois Ounce equals 31.1035 Grams

1 Avoirdupois Ounce equals 0.9115 Troy Ounce equals 28.3495 Grams

One US copper penny (prior to 1982) weighs 2 pennyweight 1/10th Troy Ounce). Ten copper pennies make a cheap One Troy Ounce weight set.

The new zinc pennies weigh 2.5 grams and a current US nickel weighs 5 grams.

Steve Herschbach

 

[Hoser John]

Never has made a never no mind to me as gold is gold in grams,grains or dwt as have a dozen scales that weigh'm all. Only thing I care about is finding poundage NOW that's what matters-----oops was supposed to the sober pic a few hours earlier but.......hahahahah happy ol'farmer tan ol'man-John

 

[Digger Bob]

I guess I would qualify as one of those "old timers" then. I learned to guess a nuggets weight in dwt and refer to them that way. It's also the way I have taught all who have learned from me. It may be the "old fasioned" way but it is the correct way to measure precious metals. And like Steve said, it's easy to get confused (taken?) between grains (gr) and grams (gm). And I too think the reason many like the gram reference is because it "sounds" bigger. A 10 gram nugget sounds bigger than a 6.5 dwt nugget. The only time I'll use the metric reference is measuring very small pieces, Grains, because it's the easiet way to measure the dust and little pickers.

Digger Bob

 

[Bobbylikesgold]

Some excellent replies guys , best to know them all it seems

Bobby.

 

[Gila Marc]

I know a lot of "old timers" around here who still use dwt for weighing gold, but having working as a gold assayer most of my life I've found the most reliable weight is in grams. I've worked closely with the major refiners, Johnson Matthey, Engelhard, Handy & Harman, etc., and I've never seen one who didn't use grams exclusively for the standard weights, sometimes to four decimals. We weighed assay prills (beads) down to a microgram on very sensitive microbalances to achieve correct assay-ton fusions. An assay-ton is 29.1667 grams, rounded to four decimal places in this case. I believe grams are more accurate when it really counts, and I know of no professionals who use anything else.

 

[Bobbylikesgold]

I know a lot of "old timers" around here who still use dwt for weighing gold, but having working as a gold assayer most of my life I've found the most reliable weight is in grams. I've worked closely with the major refiners, Johnson Matthey, Engelhard, Handy & Harman, etc., and I've never seen one who didn't use grams exclusively for the standard weights, sometimes to four decimals. We weighed assay prills (beads) down to a microgram on very sensitive microbalances to achieve correct assay-ton fusions. An assay-ton is 29.1667 grams, rounded to four decimal places in this case. I believe grams are more accurate when it really counts, and I know of no professionals who use anything else.

Great post - Gila Marc , stuff the old timers , there dying off so fast we need to move on quick the world is evolving !

Cheers
Bobby.

 

[Ed in SoDak]

Any or all of the above designations of weight are equally accurate. You can't express a gold weight in grams, to any given number of decimals, that's any more accurate than the equivalent weight expressed in dwt or whatever. It's really just a simple mathematical conversion with no loss of resolution.

To say I just found a "0.972 gram nugget" means little in providing a mental picture of the amount, while a more-appropriate figure in grains of 1.5 is just easier for everybody to relate to. The figure of 1.5 grains is far simpler to juggle in your mind to it's value than some 3- or 4-digit number that requires a calculator for most of us to cipher and convert in our heads on the fly.

In a way it sounds like you're asking all of us to post to your standard so you don't have to convert things to your own frame of reference.

These things have been in place for centuries. Why upset the apple cart now? As Hoser John so aptly says, gimme pounds, we'll argue about the micro-grams later!

-Ed

Edit: OTOH, my wife would be durned proud to announce she'd lost 453,000 micrograms of weight! I can see the weight-loss ads now, LOL! "I lost half a million mcg on this new diet!!" In other words, there's often a reason for expressing weights and measures a certain way that's just more convenient for us soft-brained-types to absorb. I'm just having a little fun with stretching your proposal to other applications.

 

[Hoser John]

Fun fact--it's NOT the form of weight--but the accuracy of the scale that matters as simple math provides the truth. 80%+ of scales sold are +- 1/10 of a gram,dwt,whatever in accuracy. At todays prices that HUGE as in a 1/10th of $1,700 is huge at $170. Buy a better one at 0.01 accuracy and your still off by over +- $17 so do sell/purchase a dozen or so times and you have shorted folks hundreds--or YOURSELF also. MY scales accurate to 0.001 so a buck seventy aint bad as all my gold found as NEVER buy a grain. Never ever been short on a sale as I always thrown in a pinch to put mine waaaaaay over and never a complaint in over 57 years a gold grubbn' and it's been goood-John

 

[steve herschbach]

At $1700 and 31.1 grams per Troy ounce 1/10th gram is $5.40 not $170. 00

Steve Herschbach

 

[Hoser John]

HAHAHA thanks much Steve as that'll teach me to come this website before I finish my first cuppa coffe in the morning--not deliberate as just concerned without brain awake and and trying to help--thanx again Steve for clarification and tons a au 2 u 2-John

 

[Hoser John]

Yahoo my last 2 remaining brain cells finally found each other and we're both right Steve,thanks again for correction to a blurry eyed half asleep post that was missing clarification...hahaha-anyhow lookn' for pics to prove us both right and will start a new thread with pics and explaination---John