Kiwi wrote: Yes, and how much is a lac of silver worth?

Going back to our friends the French, a lac of silver in that language (i.e. a lake) would be worth a LOT. The Indian word is lakh, which means 100,000, and is used to denote quantities of rupees (e.g. 50 lakhs of rupees).

BTW - my first ever use of markup, thanks to the advice in the FAQ and a suggestion from Marty to read it!

p.s. - just found an alternative spellling of this as lac - for the same numerical definition. Can also mean simply a great number: what a lakh (certainly no lack) of wordies on this board!