The reference price by karat

The Central Bank publishes one gold figure each business day: the rupee price of a troy ounce. This page divides that ounce into the pawn of eight grams, ten grams and one gram, and shows the result in 24, 22, 21 and 18 karat. The table above carries the arithmetic; the text below explains what each column means and what the karat stamp on a piece of jewellery actually promises.

One reference price, divided down the karats

The central bank's ounce price in rupees and the pawn, ten-gram and gram figures it produces for each karat.

Price of: 03.11.2026

The pawn column

The pawn is Sri Lanka’s unit for gold: a weight of eight grams, used by shops, pawnbrokers and the dealers’ association. The pawn column in the table is the ounce price divided by the number of grams in a troy ounce, then multiplied by eight. It is not a separate price that the bank publishes; it is the same ounce price expressed in a local unit. Because the pawn is a fixed weight, it moves exactly in step with the ounce. If the ounce rises, the pawn rises by the same proportion.

The ten-gram column is another local convenience. Jewellers often quote ten grams for chains and bangles, and the table gives it alongside the pawn. The one-gram column is the smallest unit shown, useful for small pieces or for checking a shop’s gram rate. All three columns come from the same ounce price, so they can never disagree with one another.

The karat rows

The Central Bank’s ounce price is for fine gold, which is twenty-four karat. The rows for 22, 21 and 18 karat are not published by the bank; they are the twenty-four karat figure multiplied by the karat over twenty-four. A twenty-two karat row is the fine gold price times twenty-two divided by twenty-four, and so on. That means the karat rows carry no independent market information. They are a convenience for readers who want to see the metal value of a lower-karat piece.

The karat stamp on a piece of jewellery is a promise about its purity. Twenty-four karat is pure gold, but it is too soft for everyday wear. Twenty-two karat is the standard for Sri Lankan wedding jewellery and most traditional pieces. Twenty-one karat is sometimes used for lighter chains, and eighteen karat is common in imported or modern designs. The stamp should be on the piece itself, and a buyer should look for it before paying.

Which karat Sri Lankan jewellery uses

Most gold sold in Sri Lanka is twenty-two karat. That is the karat of the traditional pawn, the sovereign, and of the pieces made for weddings and for saving. The twenty-two karat row in the table is therefore the one that comes closest to the metal value of what a Sri Lankan buyer will actually hold. The twenty-four karat row is the theoretical pure price, and the twenty-one and eighteen karat rows are for pieces that are deliberately made lighter or harder.

A jeweller will quote a price for a piece that is above the karat row in the table. The difference is the making charge, which covers the work of turning metal into jewellery, and the shop’s margin. That difference is not fixed; it varies from shop to shop and from piece to piece. The table gives the metal value, and the shop quote should be compared against it.

How the ounce becomes a gram

A troy ounce is a fixed weight of about thirty-one grams. The bank publishes the price of that weight in rupees. To get the price of one gram, the ounce price is divided by the number of grams in an ounce. That division is exact and does not change from day to day. The gram price is therefore a direct scaling of the ounce price, with no rounding except to the nearest rupee.

The pawn is eight grams, so the pawn price is the gram price multiplied by eight. The ten-gram price is the gram price multiplied by ten. All three are the same metal price expressed in different sizes. The table does the multiplication for the reader, but it is important to understand that the only number the bank actually publishes is the ounce price. Every other cell is derived.

What the table cannot show

The table cannot show the shop price. The Central Bank’s reference is struck at the start of the business day, using the world gold price and the bank’s indicative dollar rate. A shop’s board is set later, by the All Island Jewellery and Pawnbrokers Association, and then each shop adds its own making charge and margin. Those additions are not in the bank’s figure, and this site cannot measure them. The table is a reference, not a quote.

It also cannot show the price for an old piece. When a pawnbroker values a piece for a loan, or a shop buys it back, they deduct a wastage allowance and a buy-back deduction from the metal value. Those deductions are not in the table, and they vary. The table shows the full metal value of new gold at the karat stated; it is the starting point for any negotiation.

Reading the table with the date

The table is for the latest business day on which the Central Bank published a price. The date of that publication is shown with the table. The bank does not publish on weekends or public holidays, so the table does not update on those days. If the latest price is more than four days old, this site refuses to show it and keeps the previous reading. The date matters because the gold price can move in a day.

A reader who wants to compare a shop quote should note the date of the table. If the shop quote is from a later day, the metal price may have moved. The table is a snapshot from the start of a business day, and the shop quote is from a particular moment in a particular shop. The two are not the same thing, and the difference is not an error.