[USMA:29259] Re: 500 g pound

[Chimpsarecute]

Many.  France and Germany for one made their versions of the pound equal to 500 g at the moment of metrication.  The Chinese jin is also 500g.    The changes may have been done legally, but over time the laws allowing the legal use of these units have been changed to require only metric units and devices as legal for trade.  Thus if someone asks for a pound and is given something else, they may or may not have recourse in a court of law.   There is a big difference between a unit being illegal and a unit being non-legal.  In the first case, the use of the unit is forbidden in the second case the unit isn't forbidden per se but it is not protected by law and thus the user(s) use this unit at their own risk.  In this case the transaction is always carried out in the legal unit. The only thing a court would go by is what is printed on the receipt and not what was spoken.   One thing of interest would be the status of the pound in Canada.  Is the pound in Canada legal for trade?  If not, despite the moratorium, a shop clerk does not have to follow the 454 g definition.  A clerk may vend 500 g or whatever if he/she chooses.  Fraud and cheating would only take place if the customer paid more then what was advertised.   For example: If ham was advertised as 0.99 $/100 g and a person asking for a pound was given exactly 500 g and charged 4.95 $ for the ham, then no fraud took place.  Providing the pound is, under the law, a non-legal unit in trade.  If the customer was given 450 g and charged for 500 g, then fraud did take place.   In many places now a days it is hard to commit fraud as machines have pre-programmed pricing and a computerised scale weighs and calculates the cost and prints a label.    Euric ----- Original Message ----- From: john mercer To: U.S. Metric Association Sent: Sunday, 2004-03-21 02:08 Subject: [USMA:29257] 500 g pound Are there actually some countrys where the pound is legally defined as 500 g?  Does anybody know of any?