United States or Liberia ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
The brooches were beautiful ruby, onyx, sapphire, emerald, but after examining them he turned once more to the beads. "They are eighteen carats fine, and will not grow dim with use. I think your sister will be delighted with them." Robert thought so too, and felt a glow of pleasure when they were packed in soft paper and transferred from the case to his pocket.
You may believe me when I say that for some time to come California will export, yearly, nearly or quite 500,000 ounces of gold, 22 to 24 carats fine; some pieces of that will weigh 16 lbs., very many 1 lb. Many men who began last June to dig gold with a capital of 50 dollars can now show 5000 to 15,000 dollars.
And the one big director of the company in Johannesburg, to whom I shall the truth tell, he will applaud what I have done." The professor's arguments were far from flawless, but Dick yielded; for it had seemed more than hard to see the diamonds he had himself found handed over to the police and after all, it did not seem right to let a thousand carats of diamonds go begging for an owner!
In the Abrus, barely two feet high, I could hardly recognize the tall tree of Eastern Africa, except by its scarlet "carats," which here the people disdain to use as beads.
The cushion at the back is round like a bolster; the cushions on the sides are flat. I counted about a hundred and eight pale rubies in collets about this throne, the least whereof weighed a hundred carats. Emeralds I counted about a hundred and forty." "The under part of the canopy is all embroidered with pearls and diamonds, with a fringe of pearls round about.
The mint of Guadalupe and Calvo coined in 1848, $720,765, and in 1849, $665,225, of which two sums $1,027,130 were of silver, and $355,859 in gold, the whole being the proceeds of 116,015 marks, 1 oz., and 4 eighths of silver, of the ley of eleven dineros, and of 2351 marks, 5 oz., 2 eighths of gold, with ley of twenty-two carats.
In fact, the value of the emerald now exceeds that of the diamond, and is rapidly approaching the ratio fixed by Benevenuto Cellini in the middle of the sixteenth century, which rated the emerald at four times, and the ruby at eight times, the value of the diamond. Perfect gems of two carats weight will command five hundred dollars in gold, while larger stones are sold at extravagant prices.
The day after the ball Madame d'Urfe presented her with a casket containing a beautiful watch set with brilliants, a pair of diamond ear-rings, and a ring containing a ruby of fifteen carats. The whole was worth sixty thousand francs. I took possession of it to prevent her going off without my leave. In the meanwhile I amused myself with play and making bad acquaintances.
It is of beautiful color; it can be hammered so thin that the light will shine through it; few acids affect it, and the oxygen which eats away iron does not harm it. Pure gold is spoken of as being "twenty-four carats fine," from carat, an old weight equal to one twenty-fourth of an ounce troy.
He thereupon showed my partner and myself ten stones, consisting of five rubies and five sapphires, each of which weighed between fifty-five and sixty carats." "And you purchased them?" "We did, and for a very heavy sum. I can assure you the vendor was very well aware of their value, as we soon discovered, and he was also a good hand at a bargain. Would you care to see the stones?
Word Of The Day