Wednesday, October 16, 2013

[dvnumstd] Economically unforgeable dense material

What material is it not possible to create a cheaper alloy or mixture of the nearly same density?  The value of the material can be simply confirmed by measuring its density; no one has incentive to counterfeit it.

Osmium or iridium, whichever is cheaper, is one extreme: it is simply impossible to create a substitute of such density; they are the maximum.

Gold is not, because tungsten has similar density.

Tungsten (I suspect) is on the price-density frontier.  Also platinum.

Light materials are highly unlikely as they can be simulated by adding holes to a cheaper denser material.

One could imagine a monetary system based on coins of such a material, with the value of the coin simply the market price of the material, without the need of a government to back its value.

No comments :