Actually, the thing with the gold thread is this: It's a test to find out if a material is gold or not, by rubbing it on unglazed ceramic. If the residue is gold, then you have yourself some real gold. If the residue is black, that means you have yourself some fake stuff. Since gold is softer than the ceramic, the gold should break down instead of leaving a scratch on the ceramic. There's actually a lot of ways to test for gold, but I guess Sam just used whatever he had on hand.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2011-04-18 01:22 am (UTC)It's a test to find out if a material is gold or not, by rubbing it on unglazed ceramic. If the residue is gold, then you have yourself some real gold. If the residue is black, that means you have yourself some fake stuff.
Since gold is softer than the ceramic, the gold should break down instead of leaving a scratch on the ceramic.
There's actually a lot of ways to test for gold, but I guess Sam just used whatever he had on hand.