Interesting Facts About Gold

Gold is probably the most valued precious metal on the planet because of its distinctive properties such as its unique yellow color, luster, and malleability. Interestingly, gold is the only metal that is found on every continent of the earth. It has a lot of uses from jewelry to electricity and trade. Check out some interesting facts, uses, and characteristics about gold here in this gallery.

Interesting Facts About Gold

1. Olympic-gold-medals

Way back then, Olympic gold medals were made of pure gold, but they were last awarded at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics. Since that time, “gold” Olympic medals have been made of sterling silver plated with real gold.

2. Conductor-of-electricity

Gold is a great conductor of heat and electricity because its quality is not affected by external factors such as heat, exposure, or other corrosive chemicals. This property of gold makes it a valuable and highly durable metal.

3. Currencies

Until 1961, gold had played an essential role in worldwide money transactions. The international value of the currency was regulated by its fixed relationship with gold.

4. Double-eagle

More correctly, the purity of precious metal is defined by a “karat” (K or kt). “Carat,” on the other hand, is a unit of mass used for measuring gemstones and pearls. However, both have the same etymology (from the Arabic qīrāṭ which means “fruit of the carob tree”).

5. FortKnox

Fort Knox is a US Army post in Kentucky which is famous for being the location of the US Bullion Depository, which is used to store big portions of the country’s gold reserves. The depository was founded in 1937. As of December 31, 1941, Fort Knox held 649.6 million ounces of gold, the highest gold holdings in the 20th century. Today, Fort Knox holds about 147.3 million ounces. Multiply that by $44.22 and these ounces of gold will be priced at over $6.5 billion!

6. The Word Gold

The word gold is derived from Old Latin name Aurum, which mean ‘shining down’ or the ‘glow of sunrise’. The symbol of gold is Au which also comes from its original name Aurum. The word gold that we use today is originated from “Geolu” evolved from the Germanic word “gulþa” which means gold.

7. Gold Jewelry

Worldwide Gold is used as jewelry. Whenever you’re going to buy jewelry opt for the 24 karat gold — it’s worth the steep price! Gold alloyed with other metals such as nickel can cause skin rashes especially if you have a metal allergy. However, if the gold is pure, it won’t cause any skin allergies or irritations.

8. Gold Bar

According to Fort Knox, the size of a standard gold bar is 7″ X 3 5/8″ X 1 3/4″. In addition, the weight of a standard gold bar is about 400 ounces (equivalent to 27.5 pounds). The world’s largest gold bar weighs 250 kg (551 lb).

9. Gold consumer

India has surpassed China as the largest gold consumer on the planet. According to the GFMS report, in the first nine months of 2015, India consumed approximately 642 tons compared to China’s 579-ton gold consumption.

10. Gold metal

Gold is the most malleable and ductile pure metal known to man. As a heavy and dense metal, it is non-toxic in nature therefore also used in foods, desserts and drinks as gold flakes. Gold can also be hammered into very thin sheets (so thin that they can become transparent).

11. Gold is everywhere

This may sound very strange to you but the human body also has gold in it. Every human body contains about 0.2 milligrams of gold, which is mostly present in the blood. Apart from the human body, traces of Gold are also found in Eucalyptus leaves. It is also said that there is almost 20 million tons of gold in the world’s ocean and there is still 52,000 tons of gold underground, yet to be discovered and mined, worth of US$ 2 Trillion.

12. Gold mining

In human history, about 161,000 tons of gold have been explored and mined, just enough to fill two Olympic-sized swimming pools!

13. Fondness for Gold

  • Gold threaded shower curtain

Dennis Kozlowski’s extravagant lifestyle using unreported millions of company money led to his conviction of various corporate crimes. Kozlowski was sentenced to prison in 2005, but in 2014 he was granted a conditional release in New York City. He has since moved to a new home, and his current shower curtain from Bed Bath & Beyond is a “nondescript white.”

  • UAE launched an interesting program in 2014, where it gave gold as an incentive to children who lost weight. They say it was 2 grams of gold for every kilogram, i.e. 2.2 pounds that they lost.
  • The famous Mr T’s gold collection is worth US$120,000
  • 11% of the world’s gold is in the hands of Indian Housewives, which is more than U.S. IMF, Switzerland and Germany’s total reserve.