How many grams are there in a carat?

The carat, also known as metric carat, is a mass unit used to express the weight of gemstones and pearls (and, historically, gold). It is abbreviated to “ct”. 1 carat equals 0.2g (or 200mg).

Don’t confuse it with karat spelled with ‘k’, which is a unit of purity of gold. 

The record diamond weighed: 3106.75 x 0,2 = 621.53g. It might have originally been bigger than that as its shape suggested that a piece had broken off.

The diamond was found in South Africa in 1905 and was named Cullinan. Cullinan originally belonged to king Edward VII who ordered the renowned gem cutters to cut it into 9 separate stones. Two largest pieces (Cullinan I and Cullinan II) were mounted into the Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom and the remaining seven belong to a private collection of Queen Elisabeth II.

Did you know?

The word carat stems from Italian carato, meaning ‘carob’. Carob is a tree which belongs to the bean family and whose seeds are used as a replacement of cocoa. The seeds were believed to serve well as scales because they did’t vary much in weight.