I was speaking with a gold buyer yesterday who said he offered strong money for gold, $30 a pennyweight. There are fairly lucid articles on pennyweights and ducatweights (another term I have heard from gold buyers) on the internet: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennyweight http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ducat When the buyer mentioned 14 carat gold, I asked, "Well that should be proportional to 24 carat (as 9999 pure) right?" He said it doesn't work like that. But that is what it says on the internet, that 14 carats is 14/24, or .58333. I don't know how common dupicity is in this market, gold buyers are not educators, they are business people. But they should be honest in their business.
Yeah, they don't like it when I order a hogshead of wine either. More seriously, I can see a pennyweight of gold becoming a common measure given its expense now. I hope your associate didn't take that $30 offer if it was pure gold.
