Glossary · Fine Jewelry
Pennyweight (dwt)
A pennyweight (abbreviated dwt) is one twentieth of a troy ounce, or 1.55517 grams. It is the unit goldsmiths and refiners actually use to weigh precious metal, and the unit most scrap-gold buyers quote in — which is why a price per gram and a price per pennyweight are not interchangeable numbers. Multiply grams by 0.643 for pennyweights; multiply pennyweights by 1.555 for grams.
| Pennyweights (dwt) | Grams | Troy ounces |
|---|---|---|
| 1 dwt | 1.5552 g | 0.05 ozt |
| 5 dwt | 7.7759 g | 0.25 ozt |
| 10 dwt | 15.5517 g | 0.5 ozt |
| 20 dwt | 31.1035 g | 1 ozt |
Why the unit still exists
The pennyweight is a survival of the old English penny, which was struck at a twentieth of a troy ounce. The coin is long gone; the weight stayed, because the trade that used it never stopped. Refiners, bench jewellers and scrap buyers in the United States still quote in dwt, while retail listings and most of the world quote in grams. Nothing about the metal changes — only the number printed next to it.
Where the confusion costs money
A buyer offering "$X per pennyweight" and one offering "$X per gram" are not making the same offer: a pennyweight is a little over one and a half grams, so the per-gram figure has to be roughly 1.56 times larger to match. Read which unit a quote is in before comparing two of them. The same trap sits one level up, between the troy ounce metals are priced in and the avoirdupois ounce used for groceries — see Troy Ounce.
Working out what a pennyweight of gold is worth
Three things set the figure and only one of them is fixed. Take the current spot price per troy ounce, divide by twenty to get the spot value of one pennyweight, then multiply by the purity of the metal — 0.583 for 14K, 0.75 for 18K. That is the melt value of the metal alone. A scrap buyer pays a margin below it, and a finished piece sells for a good deal above it, because neither number is really about the metal. We do not publish a spot price here: it moves every day, and a figure that is stale is worse than none.
Common questions
- How many pennyweights are in a troy ounce?
- Exactly twenty. One troy ounce is 31.1035 grams and one pennyweight is 1.5552 grams.
- What does dwt stand for?
- Denarius weight. The d comes from the Roman denarius, which is also why the pre-decimal British penny was abbreviated d; the wt is simply weight. That is why the abbreviation starts with a letter the word pennyweight does not contain.
- Is a pennyweight of gold the same as a gram of gold?
- No. One pennyweight is 1.5552 grams, so a pennyweight of gold is worth a little over half as much again as a gram of the same metal.
- How do I convert grams to pennyweights?
- Multiply grams by 0.643. To go the other way, multiply pennyweights by 1.5552.
Related terms
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