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Numismatist: In medieval Spain, most gold coins were minted from gold mined in West Africa, in the area that is now Senegal. ███ ████ █████ ██ ████ ██████ ███ ███ ██████ ██████ ███ ████ ███████ ██ ██ ███████ ███████ █████ ██ ██ ██████ ███████ ████████ ███ █████ ███ ██████ █████ ██████ ████ ████ ██████ ██ ████ ███ ██ ██████████ ███████ ████ ████ ████ ████ ████████ ███ █████ █████ ██████ ████ ███ ████████ █████ █████ ██ █████ ████ ███ ████ █████ ████ ████████ ███ ███ ██████████ ████ ███ █████ ████████
Summary
A numismatist tells us a bunch of facts about medieval Spanish gold coins. This is what we know:
(1) most medieval Spanish gold coins were made of gold mined in Senegal;
(2) Senegalese gold was 92 percent pure, the purest known;
(3) because of its purity, Senegalese gold was never refined further before minting the coins;
(4) gold from other sources could be refined and thus still be minted into coins;
(5) coins made of refined gold could have a purity higher than 92 percent.
13.
Which one of the following ██████████ █████ ████ █████ ██████ ██ ████████ █████ ██ ████ ████████ █████████ ██ ███ ███████████ ███ ███████████ ██████
a
Coins minted from ██████████ ████ ███ █████████ ███ ████ ███████ ██ ████ ██ ███ ████ ███████████ ██ █████
This is not supported. The stimulus never indicates the weight of different coins, only the purity of the gold used to make them. We have no idea whether all coins made from Senegalese gold had the same total weight.
b
The source of ████ ███████ ████ ████ █████ █████ ████ ██████ ███ █████████ ████ ████ █ ████ ███████ ██ ████ ████ ██ ████████
This is strongly supported. We know that 92 percent pure Senegalese gold, the purest known, was never refined, so any refined gold coins had to come from a source that was less than 92 percent pure. And the facts state that some more-than-92-percent pure (i.e. refined) coins were made.
c
Two coins could ████ ███ ████ ████████ █████ ████ ██████ ████ ████████ ████ ████ █████ ██ ███ ██████████ ██ ████ ████ ██████████
This is not supported. The facts given don’t suggest anything about the monetary value of different coins, so we just can’t say how that relates to gold percentage.
d
No gold coins ████ ██████ ████ ███ █ ████ ███████ ██ ████ ████ ██ ████████
This is not supported. We know that some coins were minted with a gold content of 92 percent and that some were minted with an even higher gold content, but the author never indicates whether or not coins were minted with a lower gold content.
e
The only unrefined ████ ████ █████ █████ █████ ██ ██████ ███ ██████████ █████
This is not supported. Just because medieval Spanish mints made coins out of unrefined Senegalese gold, that doesn’t mean they never used other unrefined gold. Maybe they had a source of 90 percent pure gold that they also didn’t refine. We just don’t know!