14 karat gold: 58.5% gold. Harder than 18k, paler, and the dominant standard in the United States.
The American standard, and widespread in Germany and eastern Europe6 checks
585 means 58.5 percent gold — fourteen parts in twenty-four, rounded up from 58.33. It is the workhorse standard of American jewellery, and the reason is durability rather than economy: at 14 karat the alloy is measurably harder than 18 karat, holds a polish better, resists bending, and grips a stone more securely over decades of wear.
The trade-off is colour and corrosion resistance. Fourteen karat yellow gold is paler and slightly more brassy than 18 karat, and the higher proportion of base metals means it is marginally more prone to reacting with skin chemistry, chlorine and cosmetics over long periods.
You will also meet 583 on older pieces, particularly Soviet, Russian and Middle Eastern work. It is the same nominal standard calculated to a different rounding convention and is not a warning sign. 587 appears occasionally for the same reason.
The 41.5 percent that is not gold does the mechanical work, and the recipe varies by colour and by manufacturer. Yellow 14 karat is typically gold with copper and silver in roughly equal measure; white uses nickel or palladium; rose leans on copper.
The practical consequence is that 14 karat is the sensible choice for a ring that will be worn every day and not removed, which is why American engagement rings default to it and European ones default to 18.
| Property | 14k (585) | 18k (750) |
|---|---|---|
| Gold content | 58.5% | 75.0% |
| Relative hardness | Harder — resists scratching and bending | Softer — marks more easily |
| Colour | Paler, slightly brassier yellow | Richer, deeper yellow |
| Density | About 13.1 (yellow) | About 15.5 (yellow) |
| Corrosion resistance | Good | Better |
| Skin reaction risk | Slightly higher — more base metal | Slightly lower |
| Melt value per gram | 0.585 × gold spot | 0.750 × gold spot |
| Typical market | United States, Germany, eastern Europe | Europe, Asia, fine jewellery |
Neither standard is better. 14 karat trades colour for toughness and 18 karat does the reverse, and both are legitimate everywhere.
A stamp is a claim, not a property. These are ordered by how much each one settles about the metal underneath — and the first two need nothing but a loupe and good light.
The most common gold misrepresentation in the American market is a genuine 14K GP, 14K GF or 1/20 14K stamp read as though it said 14K. Those letters are frequently the smallest characters on the piece and the first to wear. Magnify the whole mark and read every character before you accept the number.
The bottom of a ring shank takes more wear than anywhere else on a piece of jewellery. On plated goods it wears through to a pinker brass or a grey-white nickel; on solid 14 karat it simply thins and dulls while staying the same colour. This single spot answers the question on most worn rings.
Under-karating — a piece genuinely gold but below its stamped fineness — cannot be detected by eye at all. A graded acid test distinguishes 10, 14, 18 and 22 karat in a minute, and XRF reads the actual composition without damaging anything.
Yellow 14 karat runs around 13.1 in density against 18 karat's 15.5 and brass's 8.5. It is still obviously heavy for its size compared with base metal, but it is noticeably lighter than 18 karat, which matters if you are comparing two rings by feel. Do not read lightness relative to 18k as evidence of a fake.
583 is the older Soviet and Russian rendering of 14 karat and 587 appears on some Middle Eastern work. Both are legitimate marks for the same nominal standard under different rounding conventions, and neither indicates a problem.
The United States has no assay offices, so the closest thing to independent assurance is a recognised maker's or retailer's mark alongside the fineness — a registered trademark carries reputational weight and legal exposure under the National Stamping Act. A lone 14K with no maker on a substantial piece deserves more scrutiny.
The 14 karat mark sits in the sweet spot for fraud: valuable enough to be worth faking, common enough that nobody looks twice. The dominant technique in the American market is the honest qualifier — GP, GF, HGE, EP — applied to plated brass and relying on selective reading.
Under-karating is the second problem and the more insidious one, because it survives every physical test a buyer can run. A piece stamped 14K that is actually 10 karat looks identical, weighs almost the same, wears the same way and passes a magnet. Only an acid test or an XRF scan finds it, which is exactly why countries with assay offices have them.
Each of these is checked differently. The ones with their own page have enough that is specific to them to be worth reading separately.
Metal value first, because it is the floor and it is easy to calculate. Anything worth more than melt is worth it for the maker, the age or the design — never for the stamp.
| What you have | What the metal is worth | Note |
|---|---|---|
| A 14k ring, 4 g | 2.34 g of fine gold at spot | Weight × 0.585 |
| A 14k chain, 20 g | 11.7 g of fine gold | Refiners pay under spot |
| 14K GP or HGE | Nothing | Plating is not recoverable |
| 1/20 14K GF, 20 g | Notionally 0.585 g | Not economic to recover |
| Vintage signed American 14k | Above melt | Maker carries it — Tiffany, Cartier, Retro-era work |
The arithmetic is weight times 0.585 times spot, less a refiner's margin of typically ten to thirty percent. Antique and signed pieces are worth more sold as jewellery than as metal, often by a wide margin.
Lovenhall RingThe mark tells you what the metal claims to be. The instrument reads the setting and the stones together and gives a range to orient you — before anyone charges you for an appraisal.