Troy Ounce

I want those coins weighing as Troy ounces!! Of course!

You'd think something as simple as a common denominator for the weight of a precious metal could be worked out and found acceptable to everyone. However, we live in a complex and often confusing world....

These confused me whey they share the same word "ounce".

On 21/11/2018 at 13:13, spanit said:

These confused me whey they share the same word "ounce".

If you go back to the middle ages, ounces weren't necessarily universally standard, and the term actually goes back to the Romans.  Throughout time there were multiple definitions of an ounce*, many of which are no longer used.  The troy ounce and the avoirdupois survived in common use, unfortunately sharing the same name.  Troy ounces are really only used in precious metal circles these days and avoirdupois ounces mainly seem to be used in cooking or selling illicit substances derived from plants in the hemp family.

As a side note, most gold trading in Asia seems to be done in grams these days.  China went to metric with the Panda some time ago, and in Indonesia (where I have family) gold is mostly sold in bars measured in grams.  Coins are not all that widely traded in Indonesia as far as I can tell, and silver isn't all that popular either.

* - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ounce#Definitions