Weighing non-999 silver

Discussion in 'Bullion Investing' started by InfleXion, Jul 24, 2011.

  1. InfleXion

    InfleXion Wealth Preserver

    I found that 1 troy oz = 31.1034768 grams but I'm not sure how weight factors in for other purities. I'm wondering if anyone knows what .720 silver should be weighted, and maybe more importantly how you go about accounting for the weight of the different metals. Or is it just always a troy oz and I'm overthinking things, and you just use the metal ratios to calculate the value alone?

    I weighed a .999 libertad against a 1968 .720 Mexican Olympic coin using the beam scale from the kitchen and the libertad is noticably heavier so it seems like purity does affect weight, but the Olympic coin is one I am concerned about maybe being faked so I don't know if that's a good litmus test either.
     
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  3. TheNoost

    TheNoost huldufolk

    Take the weight of mexico olympic coin and multiply by fineness (.720) to get the actual silver weight.
     
  4. InfleXion

    InfleXion Wealth Preserver

    Well what I'm trying to do is calculate what the weight should be so I can confirm that it weighs accordingly. I don't have any other .720 coins to compare to unfortunately. It would be nice to identify the proper formula.
     
  5. chip

    chip Novice collector

    According to Krause, it should weigh 22.5 grams.

    The Krause catalog lists all the various weights of world coins, it is a good investment, even for an older used one.
     
  6. rickmp

    rickmp Frequently flatulent.

    Which weighs more, a pound of lead or a pound of feathers?
     
  7. InfleXion

    InfleXion Wealth Preserver

    Depends which one is the troy pound ;)

    Thanks for the info Chip. I can probably deduce the rest from there.
     
  8. InfleXion

    InfleXion Wealth Preserver

    I found a site showing this coin as having 0.5209 troy ounces of silver.

    0.5209 troy ounces * 31.1034 grams / 1 troy oz = 16.2 grams silver out of 22.5 grams

    16.2 / 22.5 = .720

    It appears you can't really use a formula based on the purity unless the weight is also on the coin since, as in this case, it is 72% of an unlabelled weight. In cases where the weight is listed then you can just do a direct oz to gram conversion without worrying about the content.

    However, if you know how many ounces of silver are supposed to be in the coin you can use that to calculate the total weight based on purity.

    0.5209 * 31.1034768 / 0.720 = 22.5025 total grams
     
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