The Seed That Measured Value
Long before laboratories, hallmark stamps, or digital assays, merchants across the Mediterranean found a remarkable solution to an age-old problem: how to measure value fairly. Their answer was not forged in fire, but found in nature — the carob seed.
Carob pods held seeds so uniform in size and weight that traders began using them as natural counterweights for coins and ingots of gold, silver, and copper. Over time, the system crystallised:
Thus, the karat was born. From the simplicity of a seed, a universal language of purity emerged — so clear and intuitive that even a child could understand it.
Meanwhile, in Mesopotamia, another story was etched in history — the world’s very first recorded customer complaint.
On a clay tablet dated around 1750 BC, a man named Nanni accused a merchant, Ea-Nāṣir, of selling him inferior copper ingots. The goods had been promised as “fine,” but the delivery was poor. Though he had paid in full, Nanni rejected the shipment and wrote with righteous indignation:
“I shall select and take the ingots individually in my own yard. I shall exercise against you my right of rejection because you have treated me with contempt.”
This tablet, now housed in the British Museum, is more than a curiosity. It is evidence that purity disputes have shaped trade for nearly four millennia — and that copper was once every bit as critical to trust and commerce as gold.
From the carob seed that gave birth to the karat system, to Nanni’s clay-tablet rejection of impure copper, the message is timeless and universal:
Metals only hold value when their purity can be trusted.
Fairness in trade depends on clarity in measure.
And yet, in our modern world, the systems that were once so clear have become fragmented and inconsistent:
The elegant simplicity of the carob has been buried under a patchwork of marks and measures. The fairness that Nanni demanded from Ea-Nāṣir — clarity, consistency, and respect in trade — is still missing today.
The KPS™ Whitepapers aren’t just reports — they’re a roadmap to clarity, trust, and transparency across every metal and every marketplace.
A universal scale means less confusion when explaining purity to customers and suppliers.
Shoppers can instantly compare purity across metals without decoding karats, fineness, or percentages.
KPS™ enables straightforward valuations across markets, reducing misinterpretations.
Historical and modern pieces can be compared on the same 0–24 scale.
Traditional systems are inconsistent:
Tolerance bands define the small, acceptable deviations in purity measurement:
Millesimal fineness expresses purity in parts per thousand. For example:
From expert analysis to breaking announcements, our blog and press releases keep you informed on the latest in metal purity, market trends, and KPS™ developments.
