Gold has always had high value for humans who intuitively place great value a on it, equating it with the cultural elite, power and beauty . Gold has always been only for the best ones, te most worthy and moste deserving ones. In the past those were the rulers and today our loved ones.
Basics:
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from Latin: aurum “gold”) and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a transition metal and a group 11 element. It is one of the least reactive solid chemical elements. The metal therefore occurs often in free elemental (native) form, as nuggets or grains in rocks, in veins and in alluvial deposits. Less commonly, it occurs in minerals as gold compounds, usually with tellurium.[1]
Throughout history, for as far back as we can tell, gold has been prized by mankind. Why is that? What makes gold so much more precious than, say, copper? Why is it that throughout history, gold has reflected wealth and power, has been a reason to go to war, and has been associated with the gods?
Its properties may have something to do with it: it is a malleable metal, which means that it is easy to work with. And it is pretty and shiny, designed to attract. Because of its purity, it would have been easy to extract, even with the most rudimentary of tools. And because of its softness, it would have been easy to shape. Finally, because of its inherent beauty, it would have been noticed, and used as adornment.
From the highly publicized discovery of Tutankhamen’s tomb, everyone knows about the importance of gold in Ancient Egypt. It was a time when people were being buried with their most prized possessions, and of course for the most prominent citizens, this meant that they were buried with their gold. Gold was equally as important to the Ancient Greeks, but mainly as a financial commodity. By 550 BC, the Greeks were mining for gold throughout the Mediterranean and Middle East. Gold was equally as important to the Ancient Greeks, but mainly as a financial commodity. By 550 BC, the Greeks were mining for gold throughout the Mediterranean and Middle East. The Ancient Romans also valued gold. They mined extensively throughout their empire, developing more and more sophisticated techniques to do the job. They learned to divert streams to mine hydraulically (the gold, being more dense than anything else, simply “dropped out” of the water) and they developed a technique to separate gold from rock called “roasting”. Following a war that gave them access to gold mining regions of Spain, they learned to recover gold through stream gravels and hard-rock mining. In 50 BC, the first official gold coin—the Aureus—came into being: Julius Caesar, upon his victory in Gaulle, brought back enough gold to give each of his soldiers 200 coins. With this first coin, gold officially became currency, and its importance as a sign of wealth was sealed. [2]
Of all the minerals mined from the Earth, none is more useful than gold. Its usefulness is derived from a diversity of special properties. Gold conducts electricity, does not tarnish, is very easy to work, can be drawn into wire, can be hammered into thin sheets, alloys with many other metals, can be melted and cast into highly detailed shapes, has a wonderful color and a brilliant luster. Gold is a memorable metal that occupies a special place in the human mind. [3]
An introduction to gold should explain why one of the least understood concepts or commodities in our Western society is gold and precious metals. In almost every country in the world gold is revered, prized, and sought after. Throughout history, a king’s or a country’s wealth was measured in the amount of gold in his storehouse or treasury. Look at the Asian countries…India…ancient Egypt…the Spanish conquest for gold in the New World…the Aztecs…the many storied sunken ships full of gold coins over the centuries. A person’s wealth is measured in terms of how much gold he or she possesses. As an introduction to gold, central banks around the world hold tons of gold in their vaults as a backing for their paper currency. The Euro is currently backed by 15% in gold, and they are talking about possibly increasing it to 30%. The Federal Reserve has tons of gold in its vaults. But of course, that is not government gold, it is private gold. Gold has maintained its purchasing power throughout its 5,000-year track record, as the world’s only monetary metal. Gold is financial security. For years, portfolio managers have recommended a minimum of 10% to 20% of one’s total net worth in gold as a hedge against inflation or as a safety net in the event that our paper money system collapses.[4]
Monetary Gold Throughout History
One of the earliest uses of gold as a monetary unit was during the Persian Empire. The Persians collected taxes in gold, in addition to issuing their own gold coin. Later, the Persians would be conquered by Alexander the Great. He used their gold coin as the basis for his own gold coinage. In fact, the Persian kings’ gold hoard was so extensive that when it was released it caused the first known inflation event around the world.
The Republic of Venice created the gold ducat in 1284. This was the country’s first solid gold coin and other European nations followed suit to aid the growing trade between countries. When Spain conquered the Incas and Aztecs, a new source of gold was available. The increased availability of gold allowed the West Indies to select gold as their only legal tender during the 18th century.
When Germany was united after the Franco-Prussian war, the leaders opted to coin the mark (or goldmark) as the country’s currency. Because of the transportable nature of gold, as well as the metal’s stable value, other nations soon followed suit. The gold standard is a monetary system in which the country issuing the currency guarantees that the money or note is backed up by the same amount in gold.
Great Britain was particularly committed to the gold standard. Belgium, France, Greece, Italy and Switzerland only accepted gold coins by 1879. Less than 55 years later, countries such as Great Britain, among others, had abandoned the gold standard. [5]
Metamorphic belts are complex regions where accretion or collision has added to, or thickened, continental crust. Gold-rich deposits can be formed at all stages of orogen evolution, so that evolving metamorphic belts contain diverse gold deposit types that may be juxtaposed or overprint each other. This partly explains the high level of controversy on the origin of some deposit types, particularly those formed or overprinted/remobilized during the major compressional orogeny that shaped the final geometry of the hosting metamorphic belts. These include gold-dominated orogenic and intrusion-related deposits, but also particularly controversial gold deposits with atypical metal associations. [6]
Conclusion:
Gold’s brilliance, natural beauty, and shine, and its amazing resistance to tarnish and its malleability made gold enjoyable to wear, to work with, to give it for a present and to use it for exclusive and expensive decorations. Gold has always been a strong symbol of power and it is easy to see why it has been an obsession of many. Be it as may, gold has never nor will ever lose its value and will never stop symbolizing greatness.
References:
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold
[2] http://talazulay.com/dynamic/articles/about/A%20History%20of%20Gold%20-%20the%20Ancient%20World/index.htm
[3] http://geology.com/minerals/gold/uses-of-gold.shtml
[4] http://www.goldandsilverexchange.info/introductiontogold.html
[5] http://www.brokengold.com/information/monetary_gold.php
[6] ‘Gold Deposits in Metamorphic Belts: Overview of Current Understanding, Outstanding Problems, Future Research, and Exploration Significance’ by: David I. Groves, Richard J. Goldfarb, François Robert and Craig J. R. Hart
Article “The Power of Gold: the History of Obssession” idea came from http://www.goldsmart.co.nz
