But avoid paying too high of a premium over spot for average placer nuggets. At the time of this writing (September of 2011, melted down raw gold (spot price) is bouncing around from $1830 to $1900 per ounce. This would make a melted down single gram of raw gold worth about $58-$61 per gram.

In jewelry, the amount of gold in a piece is noted through the karat weight system. So if you have a 1 gram 24k gold pendant you have a piece worth $50.80 at today's value of scrap pure gold.

So if gold is quoted at $1320 per ounce, how much gold can I get for that price? Spot gold prices are quoted as the price of 1 troy ounce of .999 percent fine gold deliverable now. This means you can usually purchase one ounce of gold bullion for right around this price plus the dealer's premium.