GoldPaq

The next time you are at a bar with friends or having lunch with co-workers feel free to use some of this gold trivia to make them think you are the king of bling.

• The Egyptians were the first recorded civilization to use gold to make jewelry.

• In the United States, the demand for gold increases dramatically during the Christmas season - gold’s always the perfect gift!

• Gold mines produce gold commercially on every continent except Antarctica.

  
  

• The most common bar of gold, the large ‘London Good Delivery Bars,’ weigh approximately 400 Troy ounces, which is equal to 12.5 kilograms or 27 pounds each.

• It has been estimated that the total amount of gold mined, as of 2006, was approximately 158,000 tons. Sixty-five percent of this gold has been mined since 1950.

• If all the gold ever produced was formed into a thin wire of 5 microns diameter - the finest gold wire possible - this wire would stretch around the globe around 7.2 million times.

• Most cell phones, computers, calculators, televisions, and many other electronic items contain gold.

• The Minoan civilization of Crete produced the first known gold cable chain.

• The chemical symbol for gold is AU.

• Gold is the only precious metal that is yellow, or ‘gold’ in color.

• Gold is the only metal that is impervious to rust.

• The melting point of gold is 1,947.97F.

• Gold medical instruments are often used by surgeons.

• A one-ounce gold nugget is more rare than a five-carat diamond.

• The largest gold nugget ever found in the U.S. weighed 195 pounds and was found in California.

• There are an estimated 10 billion tons of gold in the world’s oceans; however, there is no way to safely and economically extract this gold from the oceans.

• In 1980, gold reached $800 per ounce, the all-time highest market value for gold. In today’s market, this would be over $2200 per ounce.

• Rose gold’s pink/red tone is due to the use of copper in the alloy.

• Pure gold is much too soft to be used for jewelry, and must be alloyed with other metals to create a metal strong enough to withstand wear.

• Pyrite, known as fool’s gold, is not a metal at all - it is a mineral.

• The term ‘mother lode’ comes from the name given to an area of five counties in California where the Gold Rush took place in the 1840s.

• Gold is the most popular precious metal used for wedding rings.

• Gold has been located on 90% of the earth’s surface, in deserts, mountains, in tropical climates, and in the Arctic.

• The California Gold Rush of the 1800s produced 125 million troy ounces of gold. This gold would be worth more than $50 billion in today’s market.

• The coffin of Egypt’s King Tutankhamen was created of approximately 2242 pounds of solid gold.

• The U.S. 1933 Double Eagle, one of the world’s rarest gold coins, sold at Sotheby’s auction house in New York in 2002 for $7.59 million, a record for a gold coin.

• Gold is one of the most recycled materials in the world.

• The first real gold coins used as currency were produced in Lydia, part of what is now Turkey.

• The most popular gold bullion coin is the U.S. Gold Eagle.

• Gold is one of the densest materials known to man.

• Most gold contains silver, which explains why many silver or gold mines produce gold or silver as a by-product.

• The world’s largest producer of gold is South Africa.

• Pure gold flakes or dust are used as a decorative additive to culinary creations.

• The largest single deposit of gold in the world is held at the New York Federal Reserve Bank. It is housed in the building’s basement.

• During the Gold Rush periods of 1850 to 1875, more gold was discovered and mined than in the previous 350 years.

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