Self-paced
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.
14.
As a preliminary to negotiating ███████ █████████ ███████ █████ █████ █████████ ████ ███████ ██████ ██ ██ ███ █████ ██████ ████ ██████████ █████ █████ ███ ██ ███ ██████████ ██ █████ ████ █████ ██ ███████ ████ ███████████
a
Because refined gold ██████ ████████████ ██ ███████ ██████████ █ █████ ██ █ ██████ ██ ████████████ █████ ███ ███ ███ ███ ████████ ██ ████ ████████ ██ ████████
Coins made from Senegalese gold
b
During this period ████ ██████████ ███████ ███ █████████ █████ ██████ ██████ ██████ ████ █████ ████ ████ ███ ██████ ████████████ ███ █████████████ █████████
(B) doesn't explain why some gold coins were preferred compared to other gold coins. A distinction between silver coins and gold coins doesn't help us understand the merchants' preference.
c
The mints were ████ ██ █████████ ███ ███████ ███ █████ ███ ██████ ██ ████ █████ ██ █████████ █████ ████████
(C) explains how the mints could determine gold purity, but we already knew they had to have some way of doing so. Otherwise, how would they know to refine gold from certain sources but not others? What (C) doesn't do is explain why merchants would prefer certain gold coins that were already minted.
d
Since gold coins' ████████ █████ ██████ ██ ███ ████ ████ ██████████ ████████ ████ ██████████ ████ █████ █████ ██████ ██ ███████ █████████ ██████████
(D) tells us that different gold coins could have different values. But the stimulus says that Senegalese gold coins, at 92 percent pure, were actually less pure than coins made from refined gold. So why would merchants prefer less-valuable coins? (D) just deepens our confusion.
e
Merchants obtaining gold ██ ██████ ███ ███ ██ ███████ █████ ███ ████ ███ █████ ██████ ██ ███ █████ ████████
(E) actually shows us a disadvantage of Senegalese gold coins: since they were unrefined, they couldn't be directly used to make jewelry. Other coins, made of previously-refined gold, would actually be better for this purpose. So why would the merchants prefer Senegalese gold? We still don't know.