| Question Home |
Position:Home>History> How can I tell if this Titanic artifact is genuine?Question: How can I tell if this Titanic artifact is genuine!? I just purchased an apparently "authentic" piece of coal from the Titanic on ebay!. How do I tell if it is a genuine piece!? Are there any serial numbers or anything, or a website that proves it is an authentic piece!? If you have nay details, please let me know, thanks in advanceWww@QuestionHome@Com
Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: My husband has a piece of coal from the Titanic that he bought at the Titanic exhibition in Las Vegas!. it is in a special box and has a Certificate of Origin with it which has a Object no!. printed on it!. if your piece of coal has come without a certificate of origin then I don't know if there is any way of authenticating it otherwise!. The comment above which says that artifacts have not been recovered from the Titanic is nonsense!. Loads of artifacts have been retrieved, and you can see them at the Titanic exhibition!.Www@QuestionHome@Com It is an item offered by RMS Titanic, Inc!.!? If so - this company claimed certain rights of salvage of the Titanic!. So - it may be genuine!. RMS Titanic, Inc!. was granted salvor-in-possession rights to the wreck of the Titanic by a United States Federal Court order in 1994, reconfirmed again in 1996!. The court award includes the exclusive rights to own objects recovered from the Titanic wreck site and the exclusive rights to photograph Titanic!. An FAQon their website states: Will RMST ever sell or give away any of the Titanic artifacts it has recovered!? None of the objects that RMST recovers from the Titanic will ever be offered for private sale!. All artifacts—defined as objects that were a part of the Titanic or possessed by a person on board—will be maintained together as a collection and remain available to the public!. HOWEVER -- Coal does not fall under this definition, and is therefore the only object recovered from the wreck available for sale to the public!.Www@QuestionHome@Com They have not scoured the Titanic for artifacts because of its depth!.!.!.and the most that they have been at is at the bridge!. Which is at the top of the ship!. Coal would be in the belly of the ship, not really something that they would pick up because it gets waterlogged, gets algae growth and dissolves away!. They have left the ship alone in respect as a burial site for all those who lost their lives!. Coal does not have a serial number!. It is a "sort of rock" that is dug out of the ground,!.!.!. coal can be burned!.!.!.!.so it is a fuel!.!.!.!.!.like firewood!. So long as you believe it is authentic, it is good enough for you!. Leave it at that!.Www@QuestionHome@Com how about carbon-14 dating!. this is very useful in determining fraud when it comes to historical artifacts http://en!.wikipedia!.org/wiki/Carbon_14 : Radiocarbon dating is a radiometric dating method that uses (14C) to determine the age of carbonaceous materials up to about 60,000 years old!. The technique was developed by Willard Libby and his colleagues in 1949[6] during his tenure as a professor at the University of Chicago!. Libby estimated that the steady state radioactivity concentration of exchangeable carbon-14 would be about 14 disintegrations per minute (dpm) per gram!. In 1960, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry for this work!. One of the frequent uses of the technique is to date organic remains from archaeological sites!. Plants fix atmospheric carbon during photosynthesis, so the level of 14C in plants at the time wood is laid down, or in animals at the time they die, equals the level of 14C in the atmosphere at that time!. However, it decreases thereafter from radioactive decay, allowing the date of death or fixation to be estimated!. The initial 14C level for the calculation can either be estimated, or else directly compared with known year-by-year data from tree-ring data (dendrochronology) to 10,000 years ago, or from cave deposits (speleothems), to about 45,000 years of age!. A calculation or (more accurately) a direct comparison with tree ring or cave-deposit carbon-14 levels, gives the wood or animal sample age-from-formation!. The technique has limitations within the modern industrial era, due to fossil fuel carbon (which has little carbon-14) being released into the atmosphere in large quantities, in the past few centuries!.Www@QuestionHome@Com You purchased a fraudulent item, sorry to say!.Www@QuestionHome@Com |