Now, Regarding the Weight. Thirty-five twenty-dollar gold pieces would about cover a surface 8 by 7 inches. To make a column four inches high, forty-eight such pieces would be needed. Consequently, thirty-five times forty-eight-twenty-dollar gold pieces, or 1,680 in all, would make up the dimensions of the plates, 8x7x4 inches. But a twenty-dollar gold piece weighs, as I am informed, 21 ½ penny-weights. That would make a total, if my figures are correct, of 123 pounds avoirdupois.

But from this estimate liberal deductions must be made. The plates were not pure gold. The plates of Nephi were made of "ore," and Moroni also mentions "ore" as the material of which his plates were made. (1 Ne. 19:1; Morm. 8:5.) The "ore"--possibly a copper alloy--must have been considerably lighter in weight than the 23-karat gold of which a twenty-dollar piece is made. We cannot suppose that the plates fit as closely together as gold coins stacked up in columns. There must have been some space between each pair, especially if, as is probable, they were hammered 6and not cast. Then again, allowance must be made for the metal cut away by the engraver, from each plate. Everything considered, the volume must have weighed considerably less than a hundred pounds, even on the supposition that the dimensions given are strictly accurate and not mere approximations.

Another Calculation. The subject of weight may also be approached from another angle. Let us suppose that the entire text was engraved on 45 plates, as I have shown to be possible. Forty-five would then be the number of the unsealed one-third and there would be 90 in the sealed two-thirds; that is, a total of 135 plates. But if 200 plates weigh 123 pounds, 135 would weigh a small fraction over 83 pounds. When the necessary reductions, pointed out in a previous paragraph, are made, the entire volume could not have weighed fifty pounds.