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Widsith

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Posts posted by Widsith

  1. On 28/09/2021 at 20:33, Zhorro said:

    Can you show a picture of it?

    Quite a number of older forgeries of older sovereigns are very good, and are worth studying.  Often modern forgeries are not very good - but I am sure there are exceptions to the rule.

    I will sort out a photo...

  2. I went to Malta (knights of old days ref) and the defences  were astonishing. As a an ex-Forces guy it was kill zone central . The defences were top notch even now. 

    (assuming no air stuff)

    And the locals in Malta are astonishingly hardy. It is why they got a gong from the Royalty.

  3. 23 minutes ago, Widsith said:

    I also love byzantine history. Ravenna is a must see. I went there years ago and was astounded by the art.  

    I am also a Hospitaler fan. I have been to many of their Commanderies. I like their ethos. Better than the pfft Templars.

  4. 1 hour ago, MetalsMan said:

    I seem to remember that word coming up as a gag in an old Asterix comic. Obvious word-play, something like "you can make it, only if you've got the *talent"

    And it was read out in an old Latin Class, once!

    You did latin?

  5. I stumbled across the Talent as a measure of gold or silver in olden days.

    This is from wikipedia.  I thougt it was interesting and wanted to share:

     

     

    A talent (Latin: talentum, from Ancient Greek: τάλαντον "scale, balance") is an ancient unit of mass. It corresponded generally to the mass of water in the volume of an amphora, i.e. a one-foot cube.

    The Babylonians and Sumerians had a system in which there were 60 shekels in a mina and 60 minas in a talent (in Ancient Greece one talent was 26 kg of silver). The Roman talent consisted of 100 libra (pounds) which were smaller in magnitude than the mina.

    When used as a measure of money, it refers to a talent-weight of gold or of silver. The gold talent is reported as weighing roughly the same as a person, and so perhaps 50 kg (>110 lb avoirdupois). Some authorities say that the talent typically weighed about 33 kg (>72 lb) varying from 20 to 40 kg. In June, 2018, the international price of gold was about US $41,155.69 per kilogram. One gram costs about $38. At this price, a talent (33 kg) would be worth about $1,400,116.57. Similarly, in February 2016, the price of silver was about $15 per troy ounce or about 50 cents per gram, so a 33 kg silver talent would be worth about $16,500. Thus when we read that King Auletes of Egypt paid Gaius Julius Caesar the sum of 6,000 talents of gold to grant him the status of a "Friend and Ally of the Roman People," this amount would be worth about $8,400,000,000 USD today! These estimates are only rough values, because they are based on modern estimates.The value of silver in comparison to gold drastically changed. This is because of the output of the Spanish silver mines in the New World. In ancient times the same amount of silver was often worth more than gold. The estimates do not account for the less technical mining ability of the time, nor that there were still native deposits available. Later in Roman history, during the medieval Byzantine period, the emperor Basil II was said to have stockpiled the legendary amount of 200,000 talents of gold which, in modern terms, would be worth approximately $280,023,314,760 USD. At any rate, he did save enough money that the Byzantine government was able to remit all taxes paid during the final two years of his reign.[source?]

    Another way to calculate the modern equivalent to a talent is from its use in estimating military pay. During the Peloponnesian war in Ancient Greece, a talent was the amount of silver needed to pay the crew of a trireme for one month. Hellenistic mercenaries were commonly paid one drachma for every day of service, which was a good salary in the post-Alexander (III) days. 6,000 drachma made a talent.

    The talent as a unit of coinage is mentioned in the New Testament in Jesus' parable of the talents. One talent was an incredible amount of money.

    Categories: Old units of measurementUnits of mass

  6. I s'pose the 'seeds' might be a reaction site with the milk being a silver compound? It would need a liquid medium to give the shape though.  I guess, but I keep coming back to the rubber method. It seems that the layer is not penetrating the coin?

  7. From the images it is interesting that the milk sports are round in nature and in the images they have a 'seed'. That they are round reminds me of 2 things: 1. Surface tension of a liquid. 2. The moisture you get surrounding a stone on the floor on a frosty day. 

    It feels like some kind of liquid residue.  Liquids often contain 'solids'. Indeed, you really can buy dehydrated sea water in pots. Just add water.  So it might be the total solids of whatever was in the liquid.  That a rubber can remove them is significant.  I might see if I can get some off and put it in an x-ray defractometer at work when it opens up. Knowing the composition might help.

    In summary: only 'feels' at the moment.

    W

     

  8. If when a boy I was told someone in America would send me silver, it would not have been possible in my mind. Then America was a distant place. The only contact via comics used as ballast in ships and tv shows from an 'alien world' (literally in the context of Star Trek). 

    I used to look at all of the impossible toys I could never have in the comics from the US.  I understand that some were underwhelming when you got them. But The US has done me well in this case. Thanks Cousins.

  9. Thanks... It makes up for the decades of not winning anything in the UK's Premium Bond lottery. For non Brits,  this is a lottery that started in the 60s (?) run by the UK Government. You buy a 'bond' and each month a computer called ERNIE would pick winners. It could be quite a sum. My Dad got me my first bonds and they were quite expensive at the time. So I waited and waited, with hope, as a kid but RNG didn't work for me.  You see, there is also no interest (directly) on the bonds so now that holding is not with a fraction of a week's wages but might get me half a cup of tea.  Apparently, you have to have ~£20k of bonds so you win enough to get a better rate than interest.  I don't think my Dad realised this all those years ago.

     

    So winning this means I can poke my tounge out at my Premium Bond certificates!

  10. 17 hours ago, zxtm99 said:

    I like the magnetic slide test. I spent about £10 on 10 rectangular N52 magnets, enough for a decent sized slide. It is really easy to tell solid silver from silver plated brass - I bought an iffy 1 oz bar on eBay which fell like a stone. A quick Google confirmed it was a fake and I quickly received a refund.

     

    However, as pointed out above, copper and silver have quite similar properties. Has anyone tried copper vs. silver to see if it is possible to spot the difference? I have some Sterling silver (a double-florin), and it can be distinuguished from 999 so I am quite hopeful.

     

    To test this, I've just ordered a small 999 copper bar on eBay and will report back, but interested if anyone else has been able to tell silver from copper? It just such a quick test, and harmless to the silver if you cover the slide with a thick cloth or paper.

     

    I have been thinking about making a slide with optical sensors to detect when a coin passes. It may be enough to detect the difference although it may only be good for coins with the same friction due to the embossing.  I will thike about it further.

  11. 3 hours ago, Bumble said:

    You are quite right. The slowing up effect is an instance of Lenz's law, and is in effect a form of magnetic braking. It has nothing to do with diamagnetism. What the test is measuring is the electrical conductance of the metal. Lead, for example, has less than a tenth of the conducitivity of silver, so the difference would be very marked. Copper on the other hand is almost as conductive as silver, so the magnet test would be no good on a copper coin or bar that was silver plated.

    I suspect you are an engineer. Do I get my 'no prize' for guessing this?

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