What does 916 mean on gold?

916, 22K and 91.6%: are they the same?

They describe the same intended purity in different ways. “22K” divides gold into 24 parts and says 22 of those parts are gold. “916” expresses the same idea as parts per thousand. “91.6%” is the percentage version.

For a simple example, 10 grams marked 916 contains about 9.16 grams of gold under the converter's 91.6% reference calculation. The rest is alloy; the total jewellery weight is still 10 grams.

Does a 916 stamp prove the piece is genuine?

No. A number stamped on its own is useful information, but it is not the same as independent verification. Stamps can be worn, copied or applied incorrectly.

For Indian hallmarked jewellery, BIS says the hallmark includes the BIS mark, the purity and fineness, and a six-character HUID. You can check the HUID using the BIS Care app. If the item is valuable, ask for an itemised bill and use a reputable jeweller or assay service if you need the metal tested.

Is 916 gold 22 carat or 24 carat?

It's 22 carat. Gold that's 24 carat is stamped 999 instead (or 995 under some standards), so if your piece says 916 it is not the purest grade.

Here is where the number comes from. 22 parts of gold out of 24 is 22 ÷ 24 = 0.9167, which is 91.67% gold, or 916.67 parts in every 1,000. Stamps use whole numbers, so it's written as 916. If you have seen 916.67 or 916.7 somewhere, that's the same purity with the decimals left in.

916 next to the other gold marks

Every gold mark answers the same question: how many parts of that piece are gold, out of 1,000? A bigger number means more gold in each gram, and less of the other metals that keep jewellery hard enough to wear.

"In 10 g" is the pure gold in 10 grams of the piece. In the last column UK means the UK hallmarking list and BIS means India's hallmark grades; an empty cell means the official pages we read don't list that mark. The metals mixed in also change the colour, so two pieces with the same stamp can still look different side by side.

What a 916 hallmark looks like in the UK

If your piece was hallmarked in the UK, look for three marks together: the sponsor's mark (who sent it in for testing), the fineness mark, which is the 916, and the mark of the assay office that tested it. A date letter and a traditional fineness symbol can be added too.

This is the difference between "916" and a "hallmark". 916 is only the purity figure. A hallmark is the whole set of marks, put on after independent testing. So a lone 916 with nothing around it tells you less than a complete hallmark does.

India works differently: there the hallmark is the BIS mark, the purity and a six-character HUID, as described above. Other countries use their own marks, but the number is read the same way everywhere.

How much gold is in a 916 piece, and what is it worth?

Take the weight of the piece and multiply it by 0.916. A 10 g chain marked 916 holds about 9.16 g of actual gold, and the rest is other metal.

To turn that into money, multiply the weight by 0.916 and then by the 24 carat price per gram you have been quoted. Say a shop quoted £100 a gram for 24 carat gold (just an example, not today's price). Then 10 g of 916 is worth about £916.00 in gold. Shops buy and sell at their own rates and add making charges, so a real bill or offer will come out different.

To do this for your own piece, try the gold purity converter.

What does 916 change on a jewellery bill?

It changes the gold-value part of the calculation. A 22K item contains less pure gold per gram than 24K gold, so a bill should apply the 22K relationship to the quoted 24K rate. Making charges, GST, stones and other fees are separate questions.

Use the gold purity converter to check the mark, then use Gold Bill Check if you want to compare the bill total with the estimated gold value.