how to weight an order?

[charlet]

hi gentlemen!
I know you use the weight of a candidate medal among various parameters to establish its authenticity...very scientific...and useful.
I've two questions? what kind of balance do you use? I would be worried to pay big bucks in a professional stuff...A simple electronic kitchen balnce could be reasonnable? the real problem is: how to find a "tolerance" (?? in french), of 1gramme at a correct price?
And what do you use as ref source for weight? the kutsenko's book? other moscow's mint sources?
thank!

[Art]

Charlet,

When buying measuring and weighing equipment it pays to do a little research. Generally speaking if you are going to do this with any degree of accuracy, don't waste your money on analog equipment. A good pair of digital calipers and a good digital jewelers scale will serve you fine.

I paid about $85 for my digital scale and it will fluctuate if you blow on the weighing area. It is a Pocket-Tech by Gram Precision.

Likewise for the calipers, I bought an O.K. pair for about $50 ( which is the low end for a half-way decent pair ) it only increases in price from there for a good set.

Regarding weights, we try and post weights here in the forum, just search for "digital scale" and you'll see some observed weights for some popular orders. Everyone is welcome to contribute.

Art

[Eugene]

There is no reliable source for weights. If it’s comes to common awards published information more or less reliable, but it’s too far form being reliable for rare awards. Even technical documentation for the order created in mint doesn’t always reflect real data. Many authors of publications just copy information form other sources, mostly from Kutsenko book. Paul always specifies measurements and weights information in his COAs. It would be reliable source since he measured hundreds of different species, but I doubt he would be willing to share this information. The best way so far is to ask fellow collectors about weights of awards in their collection which established to be 100% original.

[alanirvine]

Gentlemen,

I have been using a Tanita, model 1479V, digital scale in grams.

I think that a member of this forum recomended. I purchased it reasonably over Ebay.

Under search type in the word Tanita and you will be taken to all all items.

Alanirvine

[Art]

Eugene makes a good point. There really is no definitive book for weights ( at least that I'm aware of ) and the only thing we can rely on is the weight recording of other collectors. Even then it's up to the individual to draw their own conclusions. Unfortunately, while Red Star and other common awards havy many recorded weights here, there aren't many observations for the rarer awards.

Art

[charlet]

thanks for yours helps!
one idea would be to verify kutsenko's info with experiences quoted in these columns. Scientific reason want to verify always and always.
I use as a caliper a good old mecanical one, analogic, the one traditionaly used in mecanic, precise up to 0.05mm.
For weight, with accuracy of +/- 1 gramm what do you use?
(the problem is we maybe do not have the same commercial names for identic product in europe and usa..)

[Eugene]

I use Tanita 1479V as well. Max weight is 120 g, accuracy +/- 0.1g. I'm happy.

[d-riemer]

I have purchased the Flipscale 125 for $65 on ebay. It weighs up to 125g with an accuracy of 0.05g. With this accuracy of the scale, you can be fairly sure that you determine weight accurate to 0.1 gram. An accuracy of 1 gram is not sufficient for orders and medals. The Flipscale 125 comes with a calibrated 100 gram weight that is used for an automatic calibration procedure everytime the scale is turned on.

[Mozzabloke]

I bought a 'Riteweight' pocket scale off ebay for $35

Its very nice and weighs up to 125 gram's.

And is a lot cheaper than most precision scales.

[scook17]

I bought the flipscale as well, but I find it's simply impossable to weigh a medal acurrately without including the weight the suspension. I think a digital caliper is actually more use, for measuring diameter and thinkness.

Kind Regards,
Shane Cook.