Gold increasing foreign exchange, the world's gold reserves and their trading market have become a small fraction of all markets and fixed exchange rates of currencies to gold have been replaced by floating prices for gold and gold future contract. Though the gold stock grows by only 1 or 2% per year, very little metal is irretrievably consumed. Inventory above ground would satisfy many decades of industrial and even artisan uses at current prices. The gold proportion (fineness) of alloys is measured by karat (k). Pure gold (commercially termed "fine" gold) is designated as 24 karat, abbreviated 24k. English gold coins
Carat (mass) little variance in their mass distribution. However, this was a factual inaccuracy, as their mass varies about as much as seeds of other species. In the past, each country had its own carat. It was often used for weighing gold. Starting in the 1570s, it was used to measure weights of diamonds. An 'international carat' of 205 milligrams was proposed in 1871 by the Syndical Chamber of Jewellers, etc., in Paris, and accepted in 1877 by the Syndical Chamber of Diamond Merchants in Paris. A metric carat of 200 milligrams – exactly one-fifth of a gram – had often been