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 Replies: 22 / Views: 3,338 |
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Valued Member
United States
379 Posts |
hello all we've all seen these 99+ percent solid gold purity coins and such. ok, they are 24k coins. Canada and China seem to be the most well known, with their 9999% coins and taels. sometimes there is a period placed in there, such as a 999.9 coin, or no period at all... does that really matter if there is a period or where it is put? I do not think so myself... ok, the real question. I have yet to see any recent gold coins or whatever that is advertised as 100%, or stamped 1000% (percentage symbol added by me) pure gold coin or item. reason I ask is that I saw this item, a Chinese tael, stamped as "1000". it is not the first time I have seen this in taels. I own a couple of gold taels, both are stamped 9999. personally, and I could be wrong, I think it is impossible to have a 100% pure anything, much less a gold coin, tael or whatever. take a look... http://www.ebay.com/itm/Chinese-Tae...5?"doughnut" taels as well. keep in mind that these types of taels are usually about 40 years or so older, so I do not know if certain laws or rules regarding purity, if there were or are any, were in place 60 years ago. I have yet to see a gold tael in these shapes (doughnut, square or boat) any newer than about 40 years ago. I would be interested in your opinions. is it possible to have a 100% purity, or is it a myth? Is there anybody out there that has a tester that actually indicated this "1000" figure on a gold item? thanks... mike |
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
4589 Posts |
The longer and more expensive the refining process, the purer the gold. There is no way to prevent a few atoms of other metals from being part of the alloy.
There was a video posted a week or two back that shows the process the Canadian mint uses to refine from .999 to .9999 and IIRC it takes a week.
Technical, you should have the dot or a %, but most people translate 999 to 0.999 or 99.9% unambiguously.
-----Burton 50+ year / Life / Emeritus ANA member (joined 12/1/1973) Life member: Numismatics International, CONECA Member: TNA, FtWCC, NETCC, EveryCountry (online) coin club Owned by three cats and a wife of 40+ years (joined 1983) Author: 3rd Edition of the Sample Slabs book, https://www.sampleslabs.info/ |
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CCF Advertiser
United States
1533 Posts |
99.99% is 100%. 99.999% is 100.0%. There is no such thing as 0.0000>>% impurities to floating point precision. Still, its a convention that gold is not stamped as 100% or 100.0% even though you could.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2023 Posts |
Your presumption is correct -- it's impossible to get 100% pure anything, with absolute precision. Something is always going to sneak in or escape the purification process.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1963 Posts |
You can't really get anything 100% pure. Some atoms of dust probably make the other .0001%.
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Valued Member
 United States
379 Posts |
thanks for the replies. regarding the "period" of the pureness, I saw one (not a tael) that was stamped .9999
There was one year that Canada stamped a 99999 (five nines) on a coin, but I would have to check again to see on which coin (problably the maple leaf) or where the period is at.
again... thanks, mike
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3468 Posts |
The answer is no, there is not a 100% gold coin available period.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2023 Posts |
There may not always be a period. When stating purity, this-close-to-100% is implied. So "9999" would be 99.99%. Let's face it -- 9.999% or .9999% would be silly, and 999.9% would be just plain wrong.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1119 Posts |
technically a 9.999% gold coin isn't even gold
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3644 Posts |
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Moderator
 United States
54280 Posts |
Quote:
technically a 9.999% gold coin isn't even gold Neither would " .9999% "  |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1005 Posts |
You can get some elements 100% pure by growing them in a single crystal. Silicon is one notable example. However for a bulk material like gold for a coin there is always a spec regarding purity that depends on the amount of refining completed and/or possible.
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Moderator
United States
54280 Posts |
This reminds me of quite a few years back (maybe 20), they advertised in my local Burger King a special -- Whopper .99¢ The cashier just looked at me with a blank stare when I said keep the change from the Lincoln Cent. |
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Moderator
United States
54280 Posts |
Who has an XRF machine? What does it read when you use it on a "999" pure precious metal coin?
Edited by nss-52
02/13/2017 10:58 pm
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3644 Posts |
Took me an extra second on that one NSS  |
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Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
2624 Posts |
Agree with the above and the same goes for the description of 24ct jewellery...any worked/soldered item can't be 24ct pure.
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Replies: 22 / Views: 3,338 |
Posted 02/13/2017 10:43 am
