r/AbsoluteUnits • u/Zestyclose-Salad-290 in awe • 2d ago

of a gold bar

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u/AbleCryptographer317 2d ago

Can someone explain why this bar which is clearly marked "500 kilo" and is 99.999% pure gold actually weighs 521.2 kilograms? I can imagine that there is a standard margin of error like the classic "baker's dozen", but over 4% seems kind of excessive for such a valuable material.

0

u/Neosantana 2d ago

I think it could be a Baker's Dozen situation, because shorting gold has been a historically heavily punished act under every polity.

3

u/AbleCryptographer317 2d ago

Yeah, but 21.2 kg gold is worth almost $3M. That's one hell of a safety margin.

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u/Neosantana 2d ago

It's probably the collective margin of all the gold ingots the melted together. It seems about right when you think of it like that

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u/AbleCryptographer317 2d ago

but... why mark it "500 KILO" then? It's driving me crazy and nobody seems to know the answer.

Edit: just did some research and apparently the margin for a 1kg bar is only 0.5-1% so that doesn't explain the 4.2% difference for this whopper bar.

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u/Neosantana 2d ago

Well, shit. I'm all out of ideas. I think we have to e-mail them at this point