History About Gold
Gold is and has been a part of many cultures and religions throughout the centuries. Early Egyptian hieroglyphics from 2600 BC describe gold as being “more plentiful than dirt” in Egypt. Gold was originally found in rivers and looked like shiny rocks called gold nuggets. It has been said that gold may have been the first metal used by humans. Gold became a symbol of many societies and cultures. Its beauty, brilliance, and luster, and its great malleability (the ability of an object to be hammered into a certain shape or form) and its resistance to tarnish made gold a valuable metal that could be used to make many things.
Gold Rules
Early civilizations associated gold with rulers and gods, and gold was “sought in their name and dedicated to their glorification”. People have always valued gold highly, equating it with power, beauty, and a symbol of wealth and high status. Due to gold’s popularity throughout the world, this philosophy about gold is still dominant even in modern times.
Gold Artifacts
In ancient times, gold was used to make jewelry, plates, pots, vases, cups, swords, idols like the golden calf made by the Jews at the foot of Mt. Sinai (as described in the Old Testament). Gold was a symbol of wealth and status and was very common in the homes of the nobility and the palaces of kings and emperors. Gold is a never-ending “tradition”.
Gold Alloys
Gold was first used as jewelry and around 4000 BC in what is now known as Eastern Europe. In 3000 BC, Egyptians learned how to melt down gold and create gold alloys by mixing gold with other metals. Gold was first used as money in the Middle East in 1500 BC in the form of the gold Shekel which was 2/3 gold. Gold began to be used as money around 700 B.C. (even though the first gold coins were used in the Middle East), when Lydian merchants started making coins to help trading purchases. These were simply stamped lumps of a 27% silver and 63% gold. This was called an 'electrum.' This unit of value helped Lydian traders in their successes in trade, for by the time of Lydia’s last king Croesus of Mermnadae (570 -546 B.C.), Lydia had come into a huge hoard of gold. This is where the term for very wealthy people- 'rich as Croesus.', originated. In 1091 BC, squares of gold were used as a form of money in China.
Myth About Gold
The well known Greek Myth about the golden fleece may refer to the use of fleeces to trap gold dust from placer deposits in the ancient world. Gold is even mentioned frequently in the Old Testament. The ancient Romans had developed new methods for extracting large amounts of gold on a using a method known as hydraulic mining. The Romans would store a large volume of water in a reservoir immediately above the area to be mined; the water would then be released. The resulting wave of water removed overburden and exposed bedrock. Gold veins in the bedrock were then worked using a number of techniques, and water power was used again to remove debris. This method was also used in Spain from 25 BC onwards and in Romania from 150 AD onwards. One of their largest mines was at Las Medulas in León (Spain), where seven long aqueducts enabled them to sluice most of a large alluvial deposit. The mines at Roşia Montană in Transylvania were also very large, and until very recently, still mined by opencast methods. They also exploited smaller deposits in Britain, such as placer and hard-rock deposits at Dolaucothi. The various methods they used are well described by Pliny the Elder in his encyclopedia Naturalis Historia written towards the end of the first century AD.
Quest for Gold
In the quest for gold by the Phoenicians, Egyptians, Indians, Hittites, Chinese, and other countries, prisoners of war were sent to work at gold mines. Criminals and slaves were forced to work at gold mines as well. This happened during a time when gold was not used as money, but was just considered a desirable and valuable commodity.
Gold and Money
Gold became the first monetary standard which allowed a world economy to develop. A concept of money made trade among nations easier and also set the backbone for economic growth. Gold made it possible for the world economy to flourish and prosper throughout the years.
Gold Rush
As centuries went by and the worth and value of gold continued to increase, gold became a major commodity for people to sell. A major historical example is the California Gold Rush (1848-1855). Hundreds of the thousands of gold-seekers, known as “49-ers”, came to California to look and retrieve gold from streams and riverbeds. People came from all around the world to pan for gold and even though not many of them returned home as millionaires, they made a substantial amount of wealth. The effects of the Gold Rush were substantial. San Francisco grew from a small settlement to a boomtown, and roads, churches, schools and other towns were built throughout California. A system of laws and a government were created, leading to the admission of California as a free state in 1850 as part of the Compromise of 1850.
Resycle Your Gold
Gold is like air: it can be recycled and reused over and over again without losing its value. For hundreds of years before recycling became a household word, gold has been reused and recycled to preserve it for other use. Because gold is so often recycled, gold items produced today contain gold that has been around for hundreds – or even thousands – of years. So if you have gold that you do not wear or that is “scrap”, why leave it lying around when you can make money by recycling the gold and putting it back out there to be used.
