quintos

14:35 Jul 30, 2007 

Taña just sent me a document that proves that! I just now saw it. A quinto was a tax seal, and the quinto (I'm remembering this even though I didn't put it in my personal glossary) was the mark that showed the purity of the silver! Again, I greatly appreciate the time you took to think about this and to answer.

14:33 Jul 30, 2007 

Thank you, Noni and Ashok: First, the photos are in a .pdf, and since they are going to appear in this book, I'm a little concerned about proprietary rights, etc. Yesterday, I could have sworn I'd run into this term not long ago and it was related to the hallmark, but I couldn't find any notes or any confirmation of that.

Perhaps they are metal bars (they are small) with the hallmark on the end of the rod, which is used to stamp the mark on the piece after it's made!

10:48 Jul 30, 2007 

Can you provide a link to the photograph of these objects? Search over internet has yielded no results.

09:04 Jul 30, 2007 

Just a stab in the dark. If they´re pretty small, they might be rods to use like additional welding material. But then they´re not tools but material...