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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;GDJMSP, post: 1920429, member: 112&quot;]That is a question that I asked myself long ago, so I did some research to find out. In his book <i>Natural History</i>, published 77-79 AD, Pliny the Elder wrote that using a touchstone -</p><p><i>“Persons of experience… can tell in a moment the proportion of gold there is in [it], how much silver, or how much copper; and this to a scruple, their accuracy being so marvelous that they are never mistaken.”</i></p><p><i><br /></i></p><p>Now if he wrote about it in 77-79 AD, then the method was certainly known for some time before that. It is said that they were used in the Indus Valley as far back as 3500 BC. So the ancients did indeed have a quick and easy method for testing the purity of precious metals. And for those who don&#039;t know what a touchstone is here is a picture of one -</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]329777[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Touchstones are still used even today, so they have been with us for almost 6 thousand years. And there is another quick and easy method for testing the purity of gold, karat needles. These are from the 19th century.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]329779[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Karat needles are also still in use today, but I have never been able to find out when they were invented or by whom. But I have seen references of them being used in the trading bazars of biblical times. Karat needles, along with touchstones, were what enabled those referred to as money changers to function.</p><p><br /></p><p>So yes, the ancients did indeed have methods for testing the purity of precious metals that took only a few seconds.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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