Ha ha! …thanks, maybe I’ll stick around and see what REALLY goes on here!
I have a pile of 1850’s to 1900’s stamps here. They are at least 80 % pure of the same material as the ‘Tre Skilling Banco’ … In fact I can find many kilograms of the same material… So how much can I sell it for ?
Seems I’ve proved that the purchase price for the ‘Tre Skilling Banco’ is not for the substance but for the sentiment…
Australian hookers?
Flubber
Continuing in the same vein, I was going to add Kryptonite. But then I did a Google check and one of the comics (Superman #331) had it that it was cheaper than radium. I thought that the way of thinking may have been similar to that here, with super heavy (seemingly paradoxical adjective) elements and the expense in producing them.
But then another Google told me that that issue was from January 1979, not Madame Curie days, which I had been hoping.
My first search brought me here, from 2010, where it says (couldn’t follow cite) that radium was going for $25,000/oz.
The blogger there was furious at the writer of that issue, because the implication is that for a relative pittance you could defeat Superman.
Although I don’t know how much Kryptonite you would ultimately need.
NB: recently I was accused, once nastily and once good-humoredly, about how I could’ve done a simple Google check on something or other. I don’t know, how many feet in a yard. Many times, as you know, that’s not the point of why a question is posted.
So, yes, fine, I didn’t look up…I can’t even remember what got that person’s panties in a twist. With this entry I prove my bonafides. I am a man more citing than cited at.
You’re welcome, all.
If this were a new thread, I’d have mentioned microchips; the chip in a high-end CPU weighs a fraction of a gram but can cost $1,000 (assume that packaging is only a small portion of the cost), although that is only $millions/kg compared to the stamp mentioned by T_Baggins.
However, microchips may very well be the most expensive thing in terms of embodied energy cost; manufacturing a single memory chip needs as much energy as running a typical laptop for its lifetime (thus, replacing a desktop, especially an older one, with a CRT monitor with a laptop will use far more energy that you might ever save, albeit the energy cost is mostly hidden; recycling doesn’t help to save energy either except for bulk materials like plastic and metal).
Antimatter, californium, lawrencium, and element 118, forsooth! Those are all gone in a twinkling. IMO, durability and containability in the case of a gas ought to be an essential component of intrinsic worth.
The OP never made any such rules or conditions on his question.
I realize this is a zombie, but I’ll point out that we just paid about $300 for around 20 nanograms of a custom designed DNA primer. I’ll let someone else figure out what that translates to in dollars per pound.
This . . .
http://www.nextpowerup.com/news/1098/china-develops-worlds-lightest-solid-material.html
. . . might be a contender.