26Eucalyptus Gold
Eucalyptus trees contain gold. While searching for water, eucalyptus trees collect gold from the dissolved particles in the water and store it in their leaves. Finding new gold resources in Australia in this way is both cost-effective and efficient.
27. In the early 1980s, employees who had worked over 25 years at the LEGO facility in Germany were honored with a 14-karat gold LEGO brick. They're worth about $15,000 apiece.
28. A gold-capped tooth belonging to the first prime minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Patrice Lumumba was returned to Congo by Belgium in June 2022. After Lumumba's assassination in 1961, his body was destroyed in acid, and his bones were pulverized to dust, leaving just a single tooth. This came about after Belgium admitted in February 2002 that it had helped plot the 1961 murder of Patrice Lumumba, the first Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The crime was committed out of fear of losing control over Congo's natural resources.
29. People who were sentenced to death by beheading were told to give the headsman a gold coin as payment. This was done to make sure that the executioner wouldn't mess up the beheading and cause the person to die slowly from multiple blows.
30. The "Your Child in Gold" competition in Dubai encourages people to lose weight by offering a prize of one gram of gold for every kilogram (2.2 lbs) shed, with a bonus award for families. The competition is meant to bring attention to the problem of childhood obesity and get people to do something about it.
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31Morgan Freeman's Golden Studs
To honor a time-honored maritime custom, Morgan Freeman wears a pair of gold earrings. If he dies abroad, they're worth enough to buy a casket.
32. In 1944, the United States and other nations reached an agreement requiring all countries to use the dollar as the international currency and to convert gold at a fixed rate of $35 per ounce. By declaring that the United States would no longer use the gold standard in 1971, President Nixon effectively ended its use. This phenomenon was dubbed the "Nixon Shock."
33. From 1933 through 1975, private ownership of gold by Americans was prohibited, with a few exceptions (such as jewelry and collector coins). The January 30, 1934, United States Gold Reserve Act compelled the Federal Reserve to surrender all gold and gold certificates to the Treasury. It also prohibited the Treasury and financial institutions from redeeming dollar bills for gold, established the Exchange Stabilization Fund under Treasury control to control the dollar's value without Federal Reserve approval, and allowed the president to set the dollar's gold value by proclamation.
34. Not a single box or Treasury note was lost during Operation Fish, which sent 186,332 gold bars and almost 8 million ounces of gold coins from the United Kingdom to Canada during World War II. This was the largest movement of physical wealth in history.
35. In 1784, a Japanese farmer unearthed a gold seal while working on an irrigation canal. It was presented by the Chinese Emperor to a Japanese embassy in 54 CE, the year of their first documented interaction. The seal was found to be 95% pure gold.
