A troy ounce (denoted on the stock exchange as t oz or ozt) is equal to 31.1034768 grams and is used as a measure of weight in the banking and jewelry industries when weighing gold, silver, platinum, palladium, and sometimes in the cosmetics industry to determine especially valuable components.
A troy ounce should be distinguished from a regular ounce - Avoirdupois Ounce, which is equal to 28.349523125 grams.
How the weight of precious metals is measured, and what does the grain have to do with it, in our new material on the Masterforex-V Academy Wiki.
History of measuring the weight of gold in ancient times
How to measure the weight of a product so that neither the seller nor the buyer is deceived?
Places like Karachi, New Delhi, Pakistan, Mumbai, Singapore and Nepal use the Tola system to weigh gold. Tola means weight and the name has its roots in Sanskrit. It weighs 3/8 troy ounce or 180 grains.
Ancient Babylon and the Sumerians gave a weight system consisting of shekels, minas and talents (1 talent consisted of 60 minas, and a mina consisted of 60 shekels). This weight system migrated first to Ancient Greece, and then to the Roman Empire, where the Roman talent already consisted of 100 pondus - pound (translated from Latin - weight). Each pondus consisted of 16 ounces (from the Latin uncia).
What is an ounce
Since ancient times, in many places it was customary to measure the mass of a material in pounds, and these pounds were not identical. The Russian pound was equal to 0.41 kg, and the pound sterling (silver coins) was approximately 0.35 kg. According to one version, it was he who later turned into the British pound - a currency that today is more expensive than the dollar or euro.
Ancient Rome also had its own pound - libra (327.45 g). The twelfth part of it was called an ounce.
Briefly about the history of the origin of the troy ounce
The first mention of the troy ounce (denoted as ozt or t oz) dates back to 1390. But the fair in Troyes (Champagne) was known in Europe since the 12th century, and probably appeared around the 5th century. This is how grain, cosmetics, and medicines were calculated (in fractions of a pound).
The words “Troyes” and “Troyskaya” sound different to the Russian ear, but it’s worth looking at the French spelling of the city’s name - Troyes - and the similarity becomes obvious.
Weight measurement in the Middle Ages in Europe
As we see, all these pounds, ounces, libres were inherited by Europe from the Roman Empire, and were not at all invented by Henry III in England, as many observers write.
The city of Troyes in France, as a center of trade in the early Middle Ages, added the word troy to the ounce, and its weight was not the usual 16th part of a pound, but 12th part. Thus, a troy ounce is slightly heavier than a regular ounce. In addition, there was the Parisian ounce, the Dutch ounce, the Nuremberg ounce, the Bremen ounce, etc. That is, there were differences in ounce weight not only between countries, but also between cities!
But Henry III in 1266 legislated for the weight of an ounce - the weight of 640 pieces of well-dried wheat grains. According to this standard, later (already under Henry VII) official metal weights were created, which were kept in the Treasury in London and with which the royal assayers checked their weights. Copies of these standard weights were made and distributed throughout the English counties.
The Troy Ounce finally became the official unit of measurement for the gold and silver trade in London in 1527.
Types of ounce
In addition to mass, in Rome they measured in ounces:
- area: 1 oz - 2400 roman sq. feet, that is 29.9 m²;
- length: 1 oz - 1/12 Roman foot - 0.0246 m;
- capacity (volume): 1 oz - 1/12 sextary - 0.0372 mugs.
As a measure of mass, the ounce existed in many countries in Europe and beyond and was equal to various numbers of metric grams. Discrepancies have survived to this day.
ounce can mean not only t oz, but also other varieties:
- fl oz - fluid ounce (there are English and American, both are approximately 30 ml);
- oz at - avoirdupois ounce, derived from the trade pound (one oz at - about 28 g).
Troy ounce in the modern world
The metric system has been adopted almost completely throughout the world , however, in the precious metals market, the troy ounce is still the royal standard of purity and quality and continues to be the main unit of weight in their trade.
When trading on the stock exchange, to show that the weight of the metal is indicated in troy ounces, the symbol X is added to the name:
- palladium - XPD
- platinum - XPT
- silver – X AG
- gold – X AU
Example: online chart of the cost of a troy ounce of silver in US dollars.
XAGUSD chart courtesy of TradingView
How much is 1 ounce of gold worth?
The cost of a 999 gold unit for 81 years (1919–2015, excluding war and post-war years) was determined by the London fixing established on the London Interbank Exchange. In 2015, the evaluation system underwent changes - electronic auctions are now held. The new price is set twice daily (at 10:30 and 15:00 GMT).
Until 2015, the price of gold was determined by 5 companies - the main traders and producers of gold bars in the world. Currently, 13 banks from different countries are participating in the auction, including Canada, South Africa, China, Switzerland, the USA and France. In Russia, there are no organizations accredited to participate in interbank trading.
Since the rate changes every day, it is best to track its fluctuations using a live chart.
Gold | RUB | 1 oz
USDRUB*PL1 chart! provided by TradingView
Gold | USD | 1 oz
Schedule PL1! provided by TradingView
Troy ounce and Forex
Today, many brokers can provide you with the opportunity to trade precious metals, which are also measured in troy ounces. The best of them, according to the Forex Academy Masterforex-V broker rating, are:
| Broker name | Year of foundation | Trading instruments | Licenses | |
| 1. | NordFX | 2008 | currency pairs, commodity futures, stock indices, cryptocurrencies, stocks | CySEC, MiFID |
| 2. | Swissquote | 1996 | commodity futures, currency pairs, stock index futures, cryptocurrencies, metals, ETFs, warrants, shares | FINMA, FCA, SFC, Dubai FSA |
| 3. | Dukascopy | 1998 | stock indices, commodity futures, currency pairs, stocks, bonds, ETFs | FINMA, FCMC |
| 4. | Alpari | 1998 | metals, energy, indices, currency pairs, cryptocurrencies | — |
| 5. | FxPro | 2006 | indices, commodity futures, stocks, currency pairs | FCA, CySEC, FSB, Dubai FSA, BaFin, ACPR, CNMV |
| 6. | Interactive Brokers | 1977 | stocks, bonds, derivatives, currency pairs, forward contracts, bills, warrants, options, stock indices, currency and commodity futures | NFA, CFTC, FCA, IIROC |
| 7. | Oanda | 1996 | bonds, stock indices, currency pairs, commodity futures | NFA, CFTC, FCA, IIROC, MAS, ASIC |
| 8. | FXCM | 1999 | currency pairs, stock indices, commodity futures, cryptocurrencies | FCA, BaFin, ACPR, AMF, Dubai FSA,SFC, ISA, ASIC, FSB |
| 9. | Saxo Bank | 1992 | currency and commodity futures, stock indices, currency pairs, ETFs, stocks, bonds, derivatives | Danish FSA, Consob, Czech National Bank, Bank of the Netherlands, ASIC, Monetary Authority of Singapore, FINMA, Bank of France, Central Bank of the UAE, Japanese Financial Services Agency, Securities and Futures Commission in Hong Kong. |
| 10. | FOREX.com | 1999 | currency pairs, stocks, stock indices, commodity futures, cryptocurrencies | NFA, CFTC, FCA, ASIC, JSDA, MAS, SFC |
| 11. | FIBO Group | 1998 | metals, energy, currency pairs, commodities, cryptocurrencies, indices | CySEC |
| 12. | FINAM FOREX | 1994 | currency pairs | Bank of Russia |
As we can see, the troy ounce remained in use for at least seven centuries and will probably continue to be used in the future.
Sincerely, wiki Masterforex-V - free (school) and professional Masterforex-V training courses for working on Forex, stock, futures, commodity and cryptocurrency exchanges.
Measure in different countries
Until the 20th century, which greatly unified the units of measurement of mass, length and other parameters, residents of different countries used their own measures, different from those preferred by their neighbors. This complicated trade even then, and modern man is even more confused in the diversity. If you came across an ounce in fiction or historical literature, it could be:
- 1/8 German mark (Germany until the end of the 19th century);
- 1/12 pound (Italy);
- 1/16 trade pound (Portugal and Spain);
- 1 doubloon (South America);
- 3 ducat coin (Sicily);
- 1 liang, also known as tael (China).
Using recalculation in practice
The need to convert ounce to gram arises, in most cases, when trying to calculate how much gold or silver costs per gram in national currency, for example in rubles, today. The calculation algorithm is quite complex and requires knowledge not only of the cost of the metal in dollars per ounce, but also of the ruble/dollar exchange rate. It looks like this:
the cost of gold (USD/ozt) divided by 31.1035 and multiplied by the exchange rate USD/RUB, we get the price of gold in RUB/g.
There is a calculator for calculating the cost of gold, which makes calculations based on data from the Central Bank, which makes it much easier and faster to get the desired result.
You can find a large number of unit converters on the Internet; when using such programs to convert the weight of precious metals, it is important to remember that you need a troy ounce, and not some other unit.
Translation problems
Translation problems arise due to the presence of different names depending on the field of use and the country where it is used. Adding to the confusion is the fact that some countries, such as the United States, still do not use the metric system, preferring the traditional one.
- Avoirdupois (oz or oz at) – 28.35 g, used by the USA as a measure of weight.
- Fluid ounce (fl oz) – 29.573 531 ml, used to determine the volume of liquid.
- Troy ounce (toz or ozt) – 31.1034768 g, this value is used throughout the world to measure the weight of precious metals.
