Re: VMs: Mad Kircher, was (lots)

[Dennis <tsalagi@xxxxxxxx>]

	I'll put a little finer point on it.

Jacques Guy wrote:
> 
> Now, 100 francs contained 32.258 grams of 90% gold
> (a British pound, BTW, was 7.98805 grams of 91.(6)%
> gold (11/12th, so: 22k). I'd count 1 ducat = 10 francs
> (they _were_ gold ducats, if I remember).

	Jacques' data give 2.90 gram gold/ducat. Pure gold,
that is.
                 
"Rafal T. Prinke" wrote:
> 
> So one Polish ducat was equivalent to
> circa 23 grams of pure silver or
> circa 3,5 grams of gold.

	1999 World Almanac:  1 troy oz = 31.103 gram
(a little more exact).  Links from Yahoo: Gold on Sept.
9, 
2003 was 383 US$ / tr oz; silver on September 15, 2003
was 128.12 US$/tr oz.  
So - 
	Gold is  12.31 US$/gram (2003)
	Silver is 4.12 US$/gram (2003)

	Per 1900 Larousse data, 
	One ducat =        35.70 2003 US$ (gold eq.)

	One Polish ducat = 43.08 2003 US$ (gold eq.)
			   94.76 2003 US$ (silver eq.)  

	So we have about 40 US$ per ducat, based on the 2003
gold price.  
(The silver equivalent is 2-1/2 times more, though!) 
That gives 
24000 US$ (2003) for the VMs.  About what I'd thought.  

	As both Jacques and Rafal note, that doesn't tell us 
much about the value in 2003 buying power, though.  

	The point that Rafal makes on his site still applies; 
the price structure seems to vary wildly. 

	Finally, as I'd thought and Luis reminds us.  The 
still-superb Codex Vindobondensis of Dioscorides sold
for 
100 "ducats" .  It would surely fetch a lot more that
4000 US$ now, 
which suggests that the VMs sold for a lot after all!  

	Further thoughts welcome.

Dennis
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