What Is A Troy Pound? What is a Troy Ounce?

Many new investors and coin collectors believe that their one ounce silver coin is the same weight as one ounce of salami from the grocery store. Unfortunately, it’s not that simple.

In modern day society, everything around you that is weighed is more than likely measured in a system of weight known as avoirdupois. When you step on the scale and you weigh 150 pounds, you actually weigh 150 avoirdupois pounds.

The avoirdupois system has been used so widely for so long that its official name isn’t used very frequently – and in many cases the name of the system is not even known. Although most people don’t know the name of avoirdupois, they do know that there are 16 ounces in a (avoirdupois) pound.

What new investors and collectors many times fail to realize is that precious metals such as gold, silver, platinum and palladium are measured using the troy weight system. When you compare the two systems, one troy ounce is heavier than one avoirdupois ounce. In fact, one troy ounce weighs about 10 percent more. So in laymen’s terms: ten troy ounce of silver does not equal ten ounces of ground beef.

To add even more confusion to the situation is that one troy pound weighs LESS than one standard (avoirdupois) pound. How is this possible? This is because one troy pound has its own definition. One troy pound is set as 12 troy ounces. In a standard (avoirdupois) pound there are 16 standard ounces.

We have compiled the information in a useful diagram: