#14 - Numismatist: In medieval Spain, most gold coins were minted from gold mined in West Africa, in

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation

Resolve the Paradox. The correct answer choice is (A).

Answer choice (A): This is the correct answer choice.

Answer choice (B):

Answer choice (C):

Answer choice (D):

Answer choice (E):

This explanation is still in progress. Please post any questions below!

[kavyakarthic]

Hello,

Could someone explain why A is correct? Does A imply that since the Senegalese gold had a fixed gold content of 92%, the merchants COULD specify the price as a number of unrefined gold coins?

[Jeff Wren]

Hi kavyakarthic,

It's not that Answer A implies that the Senegalese gold coins had a fixed gold content of 92%; instead, that fact was established in the stimulus itself.

Referring to the 92% gold content, the third sentence of the stimulus then goes on to state, "coins minted from this source of gold can be recognized because they have that gold content" (my emphasis). In other words, those coins have the 92% gold content. Since the Senegalese coins were never refined (mentioned at the end of the stimulus), that 92% purity did not change from coin to coin; it was standard/uniform.

What Answer A addresses is the other option for gold coins, namely, the refined ones. If the refined ones also had a fixed standard percentage of gold in each coin, then it would seem reasonable that merchants would be perfectly happy to get the equivalent amount of refined gold coins. After all, it's that actual amount of gold that the merchants likely care about most.

If, however, the refined coins had various levels of gold purity (as Answer A states), then this explains why the merchants would insist on the Senegalese gold coins since they could be sure of how much gold they were actually getting.