[Jewelry making - Article 00638] - Re: [Orchid] Platinum enhanced sterling?

[Thejewelmaker]

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    Victoria and all. Thanks for the trip through Antiquity. I couldn't
    resist correcting your date for the Hellenistic period.

    Strictly speaking, the Hellenistic age commences with Alexander the
    Great (336-323 B.C.), and refers to the spreading of Greek culture
    and colonization over the non-Greek lands that were conquered by him.
    Asia Minor, Syria, Egypt, Mesopotamia, Persia, Afghanistan, and the
    Indus Valley, creating the huge and prosperous Hellenistic "Empire". 

    The total destruction of the two hundred year-old Persian Empire and
    its ultimate replacement by a number of independent Greek kingdoms
    represented the final triumph of autocracy over democracy in the
    Greek world. Many of the city-states regained some of their lost
    liberty in the 2nd century B.C. with the weakening and gradual
    disintegration of the great Hellenistic Kingdoms. But it was merely a
    brief respite, for the power of the Greek kings was replaced by an
    even mightier authority - that of Rome - which was destined to
    dominate the entire Mediterranean world for the following
    half-millennium.

    Off hand I don't recall seeing any electrum coinage or jewellery
    from the Hellenistic culture, I suspect that a universal quality
    standard for gold and coinage was one of the first results of
    Hellenic unification. Subsequent electrum coinage was probably a
    deliberate debasement undertaken by rulers and governments during
    times of monetary stress and not a case of using alluvial electrum,
    if it actually occurs at all. (I'm sure someone will answer this
    question.} What does amaze me is the ability that the ancients had to
    recover, refine and manipulate gold. I suspect that they had the
    technology or secret for this much farther back in history then we
    generally believe. 

Dennis Smith - thejewelmaker
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