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 Replies: 18 / Views: 3,062 |
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New Member
Canada
3 Posts |
An interesting topic
In basic math we have our numbers 1-10 and we base our numerical system on these numbers.
1 is 1, 2 is 2. etc.
Half of 1 is .5
three quarters of 1 is .75
90% of 1 is .9
Stop me if I'm wrong but this is what they taught me in school.....many many years ago.
Has something changed?
Why is it that we accept all of this and then buy some of our silver at .999 and think that it's pure silver?
on my planet this silver would be less than 1% silver.
The mint puts out silver at 99.9% and I think this is correct.
So many other sellers of silver sell at .999 pure.?
Are some people confused or mislead?
Or would you rather answer a different question?
this is for discussion only.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3101 Posts |
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
5417 Posts |
No, I think you are misinterpreting this. 99.9% is percentage, 0.999 is a decimal, note there is no "%" sign after the numbers. 99.9% is equal to 0.999 in mathematics. To find percentage you take a decimal and multiply it by 100%, this is simple math. I don't know what your confusion is...  |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1005 Posts |
If the number is followed by a % sign, then it is parts out of 100. If not, it is assumed as a fraction of unity. Thus 0.999 is equivalent to 99.9%.
Likewise in ppt (parts per thousand), this value would be represented as 999. All are equivalent.
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New Member
 Canada
3 Posts |
I understand the idea of using a % to differentiate between the two, however,a person could have two coins one says .999 and the one beside it says 99.9.
consistency would be nice.
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
1747 Posts |
Also, being a Canadian, you should actually be aware that Canadian silver, especially from the mint is actually .9999 pure (the purest in the world) not just .999
that extra 9/10,000 does make the difference to me!!
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New Member
Canada
3 Posts |
yes and the mint calls it 99.99
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4897 Posts |
Irrelevant discussion. 99.99% and .9999 are the same.
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Moderator
 United States
187702 Posts |
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yes and the mint calls it 99.99 No, the mint calls it 99.99 %. |
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Moderator
Australia
16808 Posts |
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a person could have two coins one says .999 and the one beside it says 99.9.
consistency would be nice. I've never seen or heard of a coin that says "99.9" on it to designate purity, with or without the "%" sign. Got a picture?  The confusion, to my mind, does not really come about with percentage-fineness, since virtually no-one uses it. Rather, it is the simultaneous use of "999 fine" and ".999 fine" to mean the same thing. Logically, ".999 fine" should mean 0.0999% silver, slightly less than a tenth of a percent. And yes, you can have two coins the same fineness, one saying "999 fine" and the other saying ".999 fine". The Mexican onza, for example, says "Ley .999" while the Perth Mint Kookaburra says "1 oz. 999", with the dot after "oz" clearly an abbreviation period, not a decimal point. I've never heard of scammers making and selling ".999 fine silver" that was really just 0.1% silver. Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis
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Moderator
United States
187702 Posts |
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I've never seen or heard of a coin that says "99.9" on it to designate purity, with or without the "%" sign. Got a picture? The mint.ca website says "99.99% pure silver" in the (English) description ("argent pur à 99,99 %" on the French page). |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
20753 Posts |
So if a coin has .999 pure Silver on it and you pick it up with your bare hands, does the stuff on you fingers add to the lesser value making it more like .998?  AND just who has taken the time and money to prove or disprove the either .999 or .9999 or the .998 or whatever? I'm sure the USA and/or Canadian Mints do not make the sheets of Silver to make coins. They must buy them from somewhere. And who checks to see if they are telling the truth? Imagine if such a company cheats by .002 or even .003. Who would know? how much would they pocket from such a deal? |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
10982 Posts |
Quote:
An interesting topic
In basic math we have our numbers 1-10 and we base our numerical system on these numbers.
1 is 1, 2 is 2. etc.
Half of 1 is .5
three quarters of 1 is .75
90% of 1 is .9
Stop me if I'm wrong but this is what they taught me in school.....many many years ago.
Has something changed?
90% of 1 is .9 so, 99.9% of 1 is .999. 1 being 100% of course. Mixing % with decimals might have you confused as Confucius say, "He who mixes percents with decimals misses the point."  |
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Valued Member
United States
142 Posts |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
17884 Posts |
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I'm sure the USA and/or Canadian Mints do not make the sheets of Silver to make coins. They must buy them from somewhere. And who checks to see if they are telling the truth? The US Mint supplies the silver to the planchet manufacturers and they do assay random samples of the planchets that come back. (One of the arguments for the elimination of the Annual Assay Commission in 1980 was that it wasn't needed because we no longer produced any coins of precious metal. Now we do. Maybe we should bring back the Assay Commission. They eliminated the Commision as a "cost cutting measure, but the only real expense to the government was about $2,500 for the medals presented to the commission members. The public members paid their own expenses.) |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1109 Posts |
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Replies: 18 / Views: 3,062 |
Posted 07/15/2015 11:41 am
