Interesting Facts About Gold

Gold has always been a fixture of human civilization. It goes back to the earliest human civilizations that we have recorded history of interaction with this precious metal. In fact, gold is one of the very first metals that we were able to successfully process into something of use to us. Historical accounts have shown that gold has always been a symbol of power and social status. A lot of statues representing the deities that early humans worshipped were made out pure gold which they crafted by hand. Many of the past kings and queens during the medieval times had accessories made of gold.

Economical uses have also been a mainstay for this metal. It dates back to the Roman Civilization wherein they were able to find an effective way to mine the metal which enabled them to make them into the first form of money used by humans. During the medieval ages, kings had their gold coins crafted to show their power and vision for their kingdom. When the 1800’s started, countries started to replace gold as their circulating currency because it was increasingly harder to mine that could support the demand for it. Thus, they employed the gold standard which put a fixed exchange rate for gold in terms based on its weight which can fluctuate due to economic factors. This transferred gold’s role as an investment in an economy in the form bullions (bars, coins, rounds). Many different types of bullions exist in the world and uniquely for the country that makes them. With the American Gold Eagle being the most popular type, the Kangaroo gold coin as the heaviest among them, and the Krugerrand from South Africa to be the first struck gold bullion at the start of the modern world. Many countries have their own gold reserves with the United States owning the largest amount of gold bars located underground in New York’s Federal Reserve Bank. In the past, the amount of money in circulation would be equal to the gold reserves that a country had, but, it was scrapped because it became imminent that gold reserves won’t be able to keep up.

Even though gold has been mined for thousands of years through the 7 continents, we have only tapped a small percentage of the total amount that is available here on earth. The largest deposits are found in the ocean, but, no one has yet to find a way to extract it effectively. But, these deposits would be dwarfed when we include the deposits found in space, but, the problem also lies in the extraction of these gold deposits.

With the relatively small percentage of gold we have, we found ways to make full use of it through recycling gold used in the past and made into other forms. This was possible because gold actually is a soft metal that is ductile and malleable. It’s pliability is the reason why its easy to process, with an ounce of gold it can be melted and main into a very thin string that would reach over 50 miles in length. There are more uses and interesting facts on gold that have been recorded and yet to be discovered as well.

References:

http://facts.randomhistory.com/2009/03/09_gold.html
http://www.beembee.com/2010/10-interesting-facts-about-gold/
http://gold.yabz.com/facts.htm
http://wanttoknowit.com/interesting-facts-about-gold/
http://bullion.com/gold/funfactsaboutgold.html

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