Facts and Figures

Gold Weights

When researching the past you must understand the language as it was used in the past, as language can change over time and can make our understanding become complicated.

Most people associated with gold prefer to talk in ounces, that is, Troy Ounces which are different to the ones you weigh your groceries with (although the pound weights used are the same in both cases) There being 12 ounces (ozs) in the gold pound and 16 in the avoirdupois (imperial) pound (the grocery one). The imperial pound is equal in troy to 7000 grains.

1 Troy oz. equals 31.103 grams

When people in the industry talk gold talk, it is in Troy ounces.

When the old blokes Malcolm knew as a kid talked gold they often overrode the boundaries of different classifications to use phrases like “I got 55 dwts.” (penny weights) rather than saying two and three quarter ozs.

Classification

is equivalent to

24 grains
1 penny weight (dwt).
480 grains
1 gold (troy) ounce

20 dwts (pennyweights, commonly call “weights”)
1 ounce (oz)
2.2 pounds (imperial, word pound shortened to “lbs.”)
1 kilogram
112 pounds (imperial) to the hundred weight
1 hundred weight (cwt)
3 cwt (hundred weight)
336lbs (pounds) or 152. kilograms