We found nesting scale weights from 1765...Compare to digital scales!

[TheMuseumGuy]

Hey fellow adventurers, we found a complete set of nesting scale weights from 1765 and I took each and the whole and put them on a very modern digital scale and I can't believe how accurate they are!

I am attaching pictures, I hope, that shows them, but the main thing here is the breakdown of each individual piece keeping in mind there is still a bit of encrustation on some areas with degridation on other areas on each piece, hence the weight variation I believe, or we would be even more amazed!

We found them piece by piece and it took finding two pieces to realize what we had. 98% of the nesting scale weights recovered are missing the smallest one we have heard, go figure, but actually that is the first piece we found since we grid so well in our endeavors.

WEIGHTS:
Smallest to biggest:
1.81
1.82
3.59
7.27
13.64
Total
28.13

I'm flabbergasted! Man I love this stuff!

I hope to be broadcasting live from the excavation soon from our site OldShip.org...keep in touch!
Jack

 

[TheMuseumGuy]

now I figured how how to do the signature...DOH!

 

[Jaycen2001]

that is so cool!

 

[ygthad]

Great find !

 

[Blazinator]

They look gold in the pic. How do you know what they are supposed to weigh each? Are they marked?

Really cool find - keep posting. I will try to keep up with your endeavors.

Can you shoot higher resolution photos so we can see more detail?

 

[TheMuseumGuy]

They look gold in the pic. How do you know what they are supposed to weigh each? Are they marked?

Really cool find - keep posting. I will try to keep up with your endeavors.

Can you shoot higher resolution photos so we can see more detail?

Hey Blazinator! Don't they look like gold! They are bronze and I don't know what they were supposed to originally weigh but the breakdown of each and the combination of two or more and then the weight of all them together to come out just a tad over 28 grams I found intriguing. I know their are 28 grams in an ounce and you can use one or combinations to make a quarter gram, eighth, half, etc. A comedian once said, "I only got into drugs so I could learn the metric system!" Shows how little I know!

Maybe another reader can fill us all in??? (Not that I assume anyone is into drugs, just that they studied the metric system is all.)

I will try and get a higher rez pix as soon as I can.

I'm so glad other folks are into things like this. I think they are just awesome. Just think, back in the day you would walk in with gold nuggets (or silver, copper etc.) and the guy behind the counter would put them on a balance scale with these weights to give you the value for your purchase. That is how you bought things if you didn't have coins. Also, before they made coins with the slotted edge, they would check the weight to make sure nothing had been shaved off which was very common!

BTW When they were taking burlap sacks full of coins on mules from the mines to the ports enough of the silver would get shaved off from the friction that they could burn the bags and get enough silver to make it well worth their while! Coolness!
Jack

 

[Blazinator]

I think its very cool to find anything ancient underwater - my goodness what a wealth of history can be held in ones wet hands!

 

[Gilldiver]

I figure that your weights given are in grams. So converting over to Avoirdupois ounces and Troy ounces I get:

Grams Avdp Troy
1.81 .0639 .0582
1.82 .0642 .0585
3.59 .1266 .1154
7.27 .2564 .2337
13.64 .4811 .4385
28.13 .9923 .9044

So the weights seem to be Avoirdupois and correlate to 1/16 oz, 1/16 oz, 1/8 oz, ¼ oz, ½ oz, and 1 oz. The agreement is very good for a metal that may have had some tin loss over the years not to mention what was lost in the cleaning and conservation process.

What I find surprising is that they are Avoirdupois and not Troy. I would have though that these weights would have been used on a large balance scale to measure silver and gold coin, nuggets, and dust which is almost always done in Troy ounces. But as they are Avoirdupois perhaps they were for measuring medicines and precious stones which would have been weighed in carats. The carat conversion is:

9.05
9.1
17.95
36.35
68.2
140.65

But I would stick to Avoirdupois.

 

[Gilldiver]

BTW When they were taking burlap sacks full of coins on mules from the mines to the ports enough of the silver would get shaved off from the friction that they could burn the bags and get enough silver to make it well worth their while! Coolness!
Jack

It happened all over. One scam that was fairly widespread was to tie a bunch or silver or gold coins into a tightly woven bag and get someone to shake it for a number of hours. The coins would wear on each other and the dust collect in the bag seams. Then you would take the coins back to the bank and gather the dust as your take. This only worked if you could get as much back as you paid for the coins.

Internationally, most banks and exporters preferred to ship bouillon bars instead of coin. A $20 US eagle coin was worth $20 in New York, New Orleans, and San Francisco regardless of condition but was only worth its weight in gold in England or France. On any shipment of coins this expected "working" of the coins was factored into the shipping costs. I have seen as much as a 1 or 2% loss factored in. Additionally, there would be a charge against the shipment of coin for re-melting and minting of the coins into the local coinage – British Sovereigns or gold Franks, etc. which, along with the lost interest on the specie while in shipment had to be factored into the shipping and export costs to send the metal to Europe.

What this all boiled down to was a preference for bouillon bars that could be packed into kegs and padded with sawdust to minimize any working. You still had to factor in the interest loss but might be able to avoid a re-melt charge if it was a shipment to a bank as bouillon and not coin as in many nations coin had to be metled down before it could be traded. Bouillon could be traded as bars.

And you thought it was all easy.