How much are "specks" of gold worth?, Trying to put a dollar value on a "speck" of gold |
How much are "specks" of gold worth?, Trying to put a dollar value on a "speck" of gold |
Nov 18 2018, 10:10 PM
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#1
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Observer Group: Members Posts: 2 Joined: 28-June 18 Member No.: 147,553 |
How much are specks of gold worth? I wondered, I googled to no avail, and so I'v tried to figure it out myself. "Specks" is a fairly loose term so I mean the stuff too small to pick up with a finger or tweezers, what some call "micron gold" or "fine gold", often only a sniffer bottle can pick up. Between 500 microns (.5 mm, or thick fingernail) and 30 microns(barely visible).
A cubic 1.6 cm troy ounce of pure gold is about $1200, with impurities reduce that about 25% of that value or about $900 for "nuggets", and per cubic centimeter of "nugget" which is seldom square, rather usually rounded or in flakes which would be even less, or would come out to about $200 per cubic centimeter. So 1 cubic millimeter of gold nugget would be worth about 20 cents on average, since it takes 1 thousand cubic millimeters to make a cubic centimeter, and that's assuming the nuggets are round, flat flakes would be worth half that or less. It takes 1 billion cubic microns to make 1 cubic millimeter, and 30 microns is the smallest thing our eyes can detect, a human hair is about 80 microns in width. So "micron gold" specks might fall between 30-500 microns or maybe 250 microns on average(thin fingernail thickness), also depending on how round or flat they are shaped. So it would take somewhere between 8 to 80 gold specks to make 20 cents worth of gold. A piece of gold that's just barely visible to the human eye is worth about 1/1000th of a penny. If all my numbers are right. Does this seem right? There is more than one "worth" in a speck of gold though beyond dollar signs, fun per hour, indicators of increasing or decreasing gold concentrations, put them in crystal ball with a little miniature gold miner inside and watch them float around, idk what else? |
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Nov 19 2018, 08:39 AM
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#2
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Rock Bar! Group: Members Posts: 563 Joined: 13-June 15 From: South of Gunnison in Gold Basin, Saguache County Member No.: 120,659 |
Weight is the easiest way to see what you have with all the possible shapes and sizes but it doesn't count for impurities.
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Nov 23 2018, 09:18 AM
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#3
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Master Mucker! Group: Members Posts: 2,430 Joined: 6-June 13 From: Falcon, CO Member No.: 82,915 |
Wow, you've put a lot of thought in to this. Nothing readily available to actually weigh it, so your calculation is as good a guess as you're gonna get.
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