LSAT 102 – Section 2 – Question 14

LSAT 102 - Section 2 - Question 14

June 1998

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Question
QuickView		 Type Tags Answer
Choices		 Curve Question
Difficulty		 Psg/Game/S
Difficulty		 Explanation
PT102 S2 Q14
+LR
Resolve reconcile or explain +RRE
A
80%
167
B
1%
160
C
11%
160
D
6%
161
E
3%
160
139
150
162
 +Medium 148.204 +SubsectionMedium

Numismatist: In medieval Spain, most gold coins were minted from gold mined in West Africa, in the area that is now Senegal. The gold mined in this region was the purest known. Its gold content of 92 percent allowed coins to be minted without refining the gold, and indeed coins minted from this source of gold can be recognized because they have that gold content. The mints could refine gold and produced other kinds of coins that had much purer gold content, but the Senegalese gold was never refined.

"Surprising" Phenomenon

Why did merchants selling goods often specify that payment should be in coins minted from Senegalese gold?

Objective

The right answer will be a hypothesis for why merchants preferred payment in coins minted from Senegalese gold. This hypothesis will explain a key difference between coins minted from Senegalese gold and coins minted from other types of gold. It could reference the fact that, as the stimulus states, Senegalese gold has a high gold content and was never refined.

A
Because refined gold varied considerably in purity, specifying a price as a number of refined-gold coins did not fix the quantity of gold received in payment.

(A) says refined-gold coins are inconsistent or unreliable in their value because the purity of refined gold varies. This explains merchants’ preference for Senegalese gold, which does not need to be refined and therefore lacks these inconsistencies, making it more reliable.

B
During this period most day-to-day trading was conducted using silver coins, though gold coins were used for costly transactions and long-distance commerce.

The prevalence of silver coins in trade transactions does not explain why merchants often specified that payment should be in the coins minted from Senegalese gold.

C
The mints were able to determine the purity, and hence the value, of gold coins by measuring their density.

The mints’ ability to determine the value of gold coins does not explain why merchants, who are unrelated to the mints, would often specify that payment should be in the coins minted from Senegalese gold.

D
Since gold coins’ monetary value rested on the gold they contained, payments were frequently made using coins minted in several different countries.

Payments commonly being made using coins minted in different countries does not explain merchants’ preference for coins minted from Senegalese gold. The question stem does not say the merchants preferred coins minted in Spain; they preferred coins minted from Senegalese gold.

E
Merchants obtaining gold to resell for use in jewelry could not sell the metal unless it was first refined.

This is not helpful for explaining the merchants’ preference. (E) seems to imply that merchants would have a preference against Senegalese gold coins, as Senegalese gold was never refined and could therefore not be resold for use in jewelry.

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LSAT PrepTest 102 Explanations

Section 1 - Reading Comprehension

Section 2 - Logical Reasoning

Section 3 - Logical Reasoning

Section 4 - Logical Reasoning

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