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<p>[QUOTE="GDJMSP, post: 3096969, member: 112"]Part of the reason I explained what I did was to point out that testing specific gravity only does so much for you, can only do so much for you - unless you have a great deal of other important information. Information that could easily explain your testing results being skewed one way or the other. Given that, unless you have that information it's really not going to matter much how accurate your scales are. </p><p><br /></p><p>So should you spend the money to buy more accurate scales ? Well, it's certainly not going to hurt anything if you do. But then it's not to help much either because you are still stuck with the same problem - all the other things you don't know. So is it worth it to spend that money ? I'd have to say no.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Actually I don't know. I couldn't tell one ancient coin from another, I've never collected ancients. I know a bit about the minting processes, the testing methods used by ancients (touch stones and karat needles), the habits of assayers and mint masters, stuff like that. But that's about it when it comes to my knowledge of ancients.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>This, this an example of what I was talking about. The SG being too low doesn't really prove anything. The coin could easily be a debased coin, but still genuine. Debased coins were extremely common, but just because they were debased that doesn't mean they are fakes. They were produced at genuine mints of the period and sent out to be used in commerce - so the coins are genuine even though they were debased. Or, you could be right, the coin could be a fake. </p><p><br /></p><p>You see, knowing the specific gravity of a coin doesn't prove anything one way or the other. That's because there's more than 1 reason the SG could be low. The coin could be debased, the tolerance level for that specific time period may have been different, and it's also possible the coin was produced from a bad alloy mix - by accident. Any of these different reasons, by themselves and or coupled with one or more of the other reasons, would explain the SG being low.</p><p><br /></p><p>You also need to understand I am not talking about this one specific coin you're talking about - I'm talking about the concept, the idea, of using the specific gravity test the singular testing method to prove or disprove the authenticity of a coin. All by itself, SG is not enough to answer the question. You need more, other diagnostics to go along with it. And not just for ancients, but for all coins from any time period.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>
[QUOTE="GDJMSP, post: 3096969, member: 112"]Part of the reason I explained what I did was to point out that testing specific gravity only does so much for you, can only do so much for you - unless you have a great deal of other important information. Information that could easily explain your testing results being skewed one way or the other. Given that, unless you have that information it's really not going to matter much how accurate your scales are. So should you spend the money to buy more accurate scales ? Well, it's certainly not going to hurt anything if you do. But then it's not to help much either because you are still stuck with the same problem - all the other things you don't know. So is it worth it to spend that money ? I'd have to say no. Actually I don't know. I couldn't tell one ancient coin from another, I've never collected ancients. I know a bit about the minting processes, the testing methods used by ancients (touch stones and karat needles), the habits of assayers and mint masters, stuff like that. But that's about it when it comes to my knowledge of ancients. This, this an example of what I was talking about. The SG being too low doesn't really prove anything. The coin could easily be a debased coin, but still genuine. Debased coins were extremely common, but just because they were debased that doesn't mean they are fakes. They were produced at genuine mints of the period and sent out to be used in commerce - so the coins are genuine even though they were debased. Or, you could be right, the coin could be a fake. You see, knowing the specific gravity of a coin doesn't prove anything one way or the other. That's because there's more than 1 reason the SG could be low. The coin could be debased, the tolerance level for that specific time period may have been different, and it's also possible the coin was produced from a bad alloy mix - by accident. Any of these different reasons, by themselves and or coupled with one or more of the other reasons, would explain the SG being low. You also need to understand I am not talking about this one specific coin you're talking about - I'm talking about the concept, the idea, of using the specific gravity test the singular testing method to prove or disprove the authenticity of a coin. All by itself, SG is not enough to answer the question. You need more, other diagnostics to go along with it. And not just for ancients, but for all coins from any time period.[/QUOTE]
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