In researching the gold content of some of my older gold coins, I may find the weight in grams or grains but not much specific on the fineness. I have found that the England Noble is 23 carat gold, does that equate to 0.9583 gold (23/24) and if Actual weight = 120 grains = 7.776 grams (120(grains)/480(grains)x31.103(grams)) AGW = 7.776g x .9583 = 7.4515 g or .2396 oz
Typically, 23 carat is .986. Most of the older gold coins ( not all of them mind you, but most ) of the kind you mention were made of nearly pure gold - .986. It was not until later years that alloys began to be used commonly.
Well, back then they didn't do things the same way we do today. Back then, a skilled assayer would use a touch stone and in a couple of seconds he could pin down the fineness of gold dead on. The Venetian ducat, from its introduction was .986 gold. So were all ducats after that and the florin, the noble, the gold gulden etc etc etc. I'm not sure exactly when the use of the term carat came into common use, but that is inevitably how coins of that age are described in today's world. Some actually know the fineness of the coins, some don't - so they use what they have seen others use. And carat seems to be the term. But you can bet that the assayers of the day knew the fineness
Most gold coins today are either 22 carat fine gold (.916) or 24 carat fine gold (.999). You'd be very hard-pressed to find a gold coin that has a composition either between these 2 finenesses or below these days. Not many countries have ever had a 12 carat fine gold (.500) medal-coin.I can only think of 2 countries,both of which are in the British Commonwealth that has ever issued .500 fine gold medal-coins.They are Belize & Fiji. Aidan.
Doug,is that one of those Dutch Ducats? You'd need to have the 21st Century Krause to see what the mintage figure could be,as well as the KM number. Those privy marks are not familiar to me. Aidan.
Doug, From what I understand The "Ducat Gold" became established as a term for the fineness of 23 carats 8 grains or 0.986111. The new book I just received has a very interesting chapter on all this . The CarolusGulden the smaller coinage of the Real d'or had a fineness of 583/1000. I wonder if that is also the fineness of the Real d'or..........I need to study a little more.
Here is one commemorative coin from Russia with the lowest gold fineness ever minted: Even Tsar gold coins were minted in much higher gold fineness! This ballerina coins has only 585 fineness, 1/20 oz of gold in it. No idea why I got it but it just looked unusual. Sorry for the bad picture - it's a rather small coin.
Gxseries,that is a very U.S.S.R. Bolshoi Theatre commemorative 10 Roubles you have there.I wonder if that ballerina is Anna Pavlova.Or was she associated with the Kirov Ballet? .500 fine's the lowest I've seen - Fijian & Belizean $100 medal-coins. Aidan.
The real d'or was .986. It was not unusual to make smaller denomination coins of gold of a lesser fineness. This was primarily to keep the size of the coin from being so small that it would be hard to handle.
