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LicenseThis image is released under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Licence
Buy this image as a print
BuyLicense this image for commercial use at Science and Society Picture Library
LicenseThis image is released under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Licence
Buy this image as a print
BuyLicense this image for commercial use at Science and Society Picture Library
LicenseCircular piece of touchstone bought in the bazaar in Istanbul
Science Museum Group
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum
Circular piece of touchstone bought in the bazaar in Istanbul
Science Museum Group
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum
Circular piece of touchstone bought in the bazaar in Istanbul
Science Museum Group
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum
Circular piece of touchstone bought in the bazaar in Istanbul. This had been imported from Belgium. Previous identifier: 1987-2
Touchstones are fine-grained siliceous stones, on whose abrasive surface a gold sample undergoing checks for purity would be rubbed. A streak of gold would be left on the stone’s surface, which could be compared against gold of known quality, to establish the sample’s purity. Touchstones were the main means of assaying the quality of gold throughout history, but remain in use today.
Details
- Category:
- Metallurgy
- Object Number:
- 2019-82
- Materials:
- stone
- type:
- touchstone
- copyright:
- Science Museum Group
- credit:
- Gift of Dr W.A. Oddy
