The chemical symbol of gold is Au. Gold is often sold as jewels for people to wear. Women are quite crazy about gold jewelry. Gold is priced in accordance with its purity. The purity of gold is expressed in carat and in ornament gold, it ranges from eight carat to 24 carat gold. The 24 carat gold is considered the purest form of jewelry gold. The short form of the word carat or karat in which the gold purity is described is ct or kt, sometimes just the letter K is also used to denote its purity.

The measurement of the purity can be described as the percentage of gold vs other metals that form part of the alloy mixture. In gold bullion, when it is marked 24 K, it means that it is 99.9% pure by mass. 22 K gold refers to 91.6% pure gold contents by mass.

24K gold is predominantly used in the Middle East and Far East to make ornaments and as investment, 22K gold is popular also in Middle East, and in South East Asia while 18K gold is popular in Europe (especially the south of Europe) and in the Mediterranean countries.

Gold is sold in large quantities in jewel shops and gold exchanges as bullion, gold coins. These are usually bought for future investment.