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their trading market have become a small fraction of all markets and fixed exchange rates of currencies to gold have been replaced by floating prices for gold and gold future contract.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) Carat (mass) The carat (ct) (not to be confused with the karat, sometimes spelled carat, a unit of purity of gold alloys), is a unit of mass equal to 200 mg (0.2 g; 0.007055 oz) and is used for measuring gemstones and pearls. The current definition, sometimes known as the metric carat, was adopted in 1907 at the Fourth General Conference on Weights and Measures, and soon afterwards in many countries around the world. The carat is divisible into one hundred "points" of two milligrams each. Other subdivisions, and slightly different mass values, have been used in the past in