Numismatist: In medieval Spain, most gold coins were minted from gold mined in West Africa, in the area that is no...

Batman on November 16, 2014

Help

This is the answer I didn't imagine. My choices were narrowed down to (e) or (d). Please, explain this. Many thanks,

Replies

Create a free account to read and take part in forum discussions.

Already have an account? log in

Naz on November 21, 2014

The nusmismatist states: that in medieval Spain, most gold coins were minted from gold mined in West Africa, which is the region that has the purest known gold. The argument states that "most gold coins were minted from gold mined" in these mines. Thus, some of the gold coins were not minted from gold mined in these mines.

Therefore, since the gold mined from the West African mines is the purest known, and we know that there is gold mined from other mines, that means there must be coins with lower gold content than those found in West Africa, which are at 92%.

This is exactly what answer choice (B) states: "The source of some refined gold from which coins were minted was unrefined gold with a gold content of less than 92 percent."

Hope that clears things up! Please let us know If you have any other questions.

liwenong28 on February 23, 2021

Hi,

I narrowed the answers down to (B) and (C), may I know why (C) is wrong? It seems to me that it could be true.

Thanks!

Victoria on April 10, 2021

Hi @liwenong28,

Happy to help!

Answer choice (C) is incorrect because the passage does not provide us with any information on the monetary value of the coins. Therefore, we cannot draw this conclusion.

Hope this helps! Please let us know if you have any further questions.