The Telemarketers Are Lying Tonite

A $20 gold eagle is indeed "solid gold" as opposed to "hollow", or "electroplated". But apart from that, "solid gold" does not have a legal definition - so they're free to use it.

Telemarketers are usually very good at being deceptive in perfectly legal ways.

Just for the record, what is the gold karat content of a 90% gold item? I know that .999 is 24 karat, right?

And yes, I am aware that karat is a jewelry term, while be collectors use the simpler percentage measure.

I did not say they were not liars just that they are pros at skirting the truth enough to get the uninformed to buy their overpriced coins. In my opinion all telemarketers are unethical scum regardless of how well dressed the men are or how pretty the women are and which channel they are selling their wares.

22K is .9166, not 92.5 as stated above. Karat is determined as parts per 24. .925 would be 22.2K, but few people use decimals for karats, better to just say .925 fine. At most one could say that .925 is at LEAST 22K.

10k is 41.7% gold... on European jewelry that's how they stamp gold...

10k= 417 or 41.7%
14k= 585 or 58.5%
18k= 750 or 75% gold

I think Cascade was just providing more information. I do not think he meant to offend.

The "karat" measuring system only applies to gold, not silver, platinum or any other precious metal. The unit derives from the siliqua, an old Roman unit of weight (about 0.19 grams). "Siliqua" is the Latin name for the carob tree, specifically the seeds of the carob tree which were found to be fairly consistent in weight. The English word carat (sometimes spelled "karat" to distinguish it from the "carat" we still use as a unit of weight for gemstones) derives from "carob".

The base-24 system of purity for gold derived from the coinage reform of Roman emperor Constantine, which saw a new gold coin, the solidus, weighing 24 siliquae. As the Roman Empire devolved into the Byzantine empire and the gold solidus eventually became smaller and more dilute, it contained fewer and fewer siliquae of gold and merchants expressed this new gold fineness by the number of siliquae in the solidus: 21, 14 or whatever.