Details of Gold

Details of Gold:
Gold was the property of pharaohs and referred to in the bible and it was one of the first metals discovered along with copper. Gold and its unique properties have been fascinating mankind for thousands of years. The word derived from the Anglo Saxon word “geolo” which means yellow.

Gold is a noble metal which means it won’t oxidise, rust, corrode or tarnish. No single acid can dissolve or destroy it which means that virtually all the gold ever discovered, still exists today. Therefore, the gold in your wedding band or tooth filling may previously have been a Roman coin or even an ancient Egyptian artefact!

The chemical symbol for gold is “AU” which comes from the Latin word “Aurum”, meaning “shining (or glowing) dawn”. Gold melts at a temperature of 1064 °C and boils at 2807 °C and its atomic number is 79 and its atomic mass 196.96655 amu. A cubic centimetre of pure gold weighs 19.32 grams (0.6815 ounces, 0.6217 troy ounces). A cubic foot of gold weighs over half a metric ton (547,081 grams).

Gold is the most malleable metal. A single gram can be flattened to make a sheet 1 metre square (gold leaf). It can also be turned into thread and used in embroidery. It is estimated that if all the gold ever mined were to be combined, it would measure around 20 cubic meters. Approximately 75% of all the world’s gold is privately owned and there is only about 50,000 tonnes of gold left yet to me mined (about one-third of what we already have).

Over 20 tons of waste rock is excavated to yield enough gold for just one wedding band and South Africa is the world’s largest producer of mined gold.

The world’s largest gold coin is the $1,000,000 Canadian Maple Leaf. Only 5 of these coins have been produced, each weighing a massive 100kg. Its purity is 99.999%, the purest gold available. On 25th June 2010, one of these coins sold at auction for 3.27 million Euros (4.02 million US Dollars / 2.6 million UK Pounds).

To alter the colour of gold and to make it more hard wearing, gold is alloyed with a range of other metals including silver, copper, zinc and nickel. Gold purity is measured in carats with 24 being the purest. The term ‘carat’ is derived from the carob bean which was used as a weight measure by middle eastern merchants. Gemstones are still weighed in carats with 1 carat being the equivalent of 0.2 grams. The standards for gold fineness (purity) varies around the world.

In 1238, King Henry III instructed the Mayor of London to appoint six trusted goldsmiths to be responsible for ensuring the purity of gold and silver items. By 1478, the Goldsmith’s Guild had appointed a paid Assayer, requiring all makers to take their completed work to Goldsmith’s Hall to be tested and marked. The term ‘Hall Mark’ was born and the practice continues to this day. In many countries, it is a legal requirement that all items made of gold are hallmarked.

Gold medals were first awarded at the Olympics in 1904. 13 kilograms of gold were used in the production of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. An Olympic gold medal is actually a sterling silver medal, plated with 6 grams of 24 carat gold. Lorentz Medals are solid gold, as are the US Congressional Gold Medal and the Nobel Prize medal.

Gold flakes can be found in a number of spirit based drinks, the most notable being Goldschläger – a Swiss cinnamon Schnapps. Food stuffs that include gold flake include chocolate, sweets and jelly.

Elvis Presley owned three Stutz cars where all chrome fittings were replaced with solid gold ones.

Last but not least, at least 15% of our gold stock is recycled every year. Recycling unwanted scrap gold is far less environmentally damaging than mining fresh ore.