Keg picked it up. "Looks all right to me," he said. "Like the real article. What's wrong with it?"
"Nothing that I can tell," grumbled his wife. "Excepting that my maid has one like it. Exactly."
"I'm not too surprised," laughed Keg. "I've been warning you of that."
"But what's the world coming to? If my maid can afford a diamond bracelet like this, she won't be working for me very long."
"At that, you're probably right. I'd treat her with the most delicate of care," said Keg.
"She's my maid!"
"Look, Linna. You're not up-to-date. I can predict people sleeping in gold beds and eating from solid platinum dishes before the hysteria dies out. The economic set-up has gone to pot, Linna, and we're trying to work it out."
"But what's the world coming to?"
"It isn't a matter of what it's coming to, it's a matter of where it has gone. My technicians tell me metals will be rated in value as per their atomic number. Uranium is more expensive than lithium because the transmutation-factor is higher. It takes a little more power and more matter from the matter bank in the instrument to make uranium than lithium, ergo uranium will cost more."
"Then if this diamond bracelet is worthless, can't we get some uranium jewelry?"