carat-karat from chouf.net

Karat (kt or K) = 1 / 24 A traditional measure of proportion equal to 1/24, used by U.S. jewelers to express the purity of gold alloys. Thus "18-karat gold" is legally required to be at least 18/24, or 75%, gold. In Britain this unit is spelled carat, like the weight unit for diamonds and other precious stones. American jewelers apparently spell the unit of gold purity with the "k" and the weight unit with the "c" in order to distinguish more clearly between them. (In German, both units are spelled with the "k".)

gemayel@chouf.net www.gemayeljewelley.com

Carat (ct or c) = 200 milligrams A unit of mass used for diamonds and other precious stones. Originally spelled karat, the word comes from the Greek keration, a carob bean; carob beans were used as standards of weight and length in ancient Greece in much the same way barleycorns were used in old England. Traditionally the carat was equal to 4 grains. The definition of the grain differed from one country to another, but typically it was about 50 milligrams and thus the carat was about 200 milligrams. In the U. S. and Britain, the diamond carat was formerly defined by law to be 3.2 troy grains, which is about 207 milligrams. Jewelers everywhere now use a metric carat defined in 1907 to be exactly 200 milligrams