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I have two resistors which need to be replaced. I tried to determine the value, but it can't make sense of these black bands: Resistors in question For reference the bands are:

  • brown - silver - green - brown - black
  • brown - silver - red - brown - black

Since a silver line can only be part of the multiplier, that means the black line on the right has to be the tolerance. Black can not be used for a tolerance from what I've read.

Is this black line a tolerance value or something else?

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    \$\begingroup\$ You are reading the color code in the wrong direction. The two big resistors are to be read right to left. The last (leftmost) band is a tolerance specifier. Normally silver by itself means 10% and gold 5%. \$\endgroup\$ May 19, 2015 at 17:36
  • \$\begingroup\$ Thanks Olin. So then these are 0.15 and 0.12 ohm 1% resistors? \$\endgroup\$
    – tehwalris
    May 19, 2015 at 17:42
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    \$\begingroup\$ @tehwalris Divide those numbers by 10 because of the leading zero. \$\endgroup\$ May 19, 2015 at 17:47

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I don't think I've ever seen a resistor value with a leading zero (usually those super-low values are marked with the value in numerals), but that's what those appear to be. 0.012\$\Omega\$ 1% and 0.015\$\Omega\$ 1% are what I see (reading from right to left, as Olin suggests, but I think the silver is a multiplier and the brown is the tolerance).

Here's a 0.015\$\Omega\$ 1% resistor (courtesy Digikey):

enter image description here

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    \$\begingroup\$ I was initially using an app to determine the values and it wouldn't accept the leading black/zero. That's what got me confused. \$\endgroup\$
    – tehwalris
    May 19, 2015 at 17:43

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