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.

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.