Everwonder how much that Hanukkah gelt would be worth if it were actually 24-karat gold and not foil-wrapped chocolate? Well, we've got the answer.

For those who don't know, chocolate "gelt," or money, is a traditional Hanukkah treat for children and often used in the holiday game dreidel. Thedreidel is a spinning top with four sides, and depending on which side the top lands on, players get either all of the gelt in the pot, half of thepot, nothing-or have to add another piece of gelt to the pot.

But let's get back to the question at hand. Of course, you can't just weigh the chocolate coins and calculate the value of that weight in gold.After all-SCIENCE FACT!-a gold coin the same size as a gelt coin would weigh much more than the chocolate. (Gold is almost three times as heavy aslead by volume.)

So, instead, we found the volume of our $1.49 bag of Hanukkah gelt using the displacement method. Then, armed with the easily obtained density ofgold-19.32 grams per cubic centimeter-we calculated how much gold coins of the same size as discs of Hanukkah gelt would weigh. Finally, wecalculated how much a small bag (containing one large and three small coins) of real gold gelt would cost at the current market price of $38.45 pergram.

The results: All together, the one large and three small coins in our bag would be worth about $7,785. Individually, the big coin was worth $3,373(rounded to the nearest dollar) and the three little coins were each worth about $1,471.

Happy Hanukkah!

To read the complete article, see:
How Much Would Hanukkah Gelt Be Worth If It Were Real Gold?(http://time.com/money/3638102/hanukkah-gelt-value-gold/)

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
HANUKKAH CHOCOLATE COINS (www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v17n51a29.html)