Numismatist: In medieval Spain

Answer choices

1. A

   Too Strong: all / same11% picked this

   Coins minted from Senegalese gold all contained the same weight, as well as the same

   We know that all the Senegalese gold was 92%, so coins minted from that would theoretically all have the same proportion of gold (92%). But we don't know if all the coins were the same weight, because we don't know whether all the coins were the same volume. Did they have really precise molds for these coins, where each coin came out with exactly the same volume? We don't know. Maybe some were slightly bigger or smaller than others, and so the weight may have differed.

   11%
2. B

   Correct55% picked this

   The source of some refined gold from which coins were minted was unrefined gold with a gold content

   Why this is right

   The last sentence tells us that "mints produced other kinds of coins (non-Senegalese) that were refined into having gold content higher than 92%". We know that Senegalese gold was the purest unrefined gold you could find, at 92%. So just combining those two facts, we know that some coins were made by taking unrefined non-Senegalese gold (which means its gold content was less than 92%) and refining it until its gold content was higher than 92%.

   Skill tested: Most Supported · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.

   55%
3. C

   Out of Scope: same monetary value12% picked this

   Two coins could have the same monetary value even though they differed from each other in the percentage

   If we found out that they used both Senegalese gold and non-Senegalese gold to make a "1 dollar" coin, then we could support this answer, since those 1 dollar coins would have the same monetary value but would differ in gold content depending on whether Senegalese or refined non-Senegalese gold was used. But we were never told that both Senegalese gold and non-Senegalese gold were ever used to make the same type of coin. It's possible that Senegalese gold was only used for the "5 dollar" coin, and non-Senegalese gold was never used for that type of coin.

   12%
4. D

   Too Strong: none9% picked this

   No gold coins were minted that had a gold content of less

   We know that the gold content of Senegalese gold was the highest in the land (at 92%) and that having such a high content allowed the coins to be minted without first being refined. Were we told that Senegalese gold was unique in that sense? Were we told that all other coins had to be refined before being minted? Were we told that when gold was refined to make a coin, it was always refined to at least 92%? No, none of those. For all we know there was unrefined gold that was 91% gold and that was still pure enough that it didn't need to be refined before being minted. For all we know there was crappier gold that got refined until it was 91% and then minted. We don't know what the minimum gold content is for minting a coin. We only know that 92% is high enough.

   9%
5. E

   Too Strong: the only13% picked this

   The only unrefined gold from which coins could be minted was

   This has a lot of overlap with what we said about (D). It's totally possible that there was some unrefined gold with a gold content of 91% that was minted without first being refined. That wouldn't go against anything in the passage.

   13%