40 Facts about Shining Treasures: The Magnificence of Gold

There is more gold (6,190 tons) in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York's vault than there is in the US Bullion Depository at Fort Knox (5,052 tons). Nonetheless, around 98% of this gold is owned by the central banks of foreign nations.

27. Following the September 11th attacks, more than $200 million in gold and silver bullion was retrieved from beneath WTC-4. It was the property of futures dealers at the New York Mercantile Exchange.

28. Traditional prospectors would consider sewage sludge financially feasible due to the presence of commercially viable levels of gold, silver, and platinum in trace amounts. An 8-year research project discovered that one kilogram of sludge included around 0.4 milligrams of gold, 28 milligrams of silver, 638 milligrams of copper, and 49 milligrams of vanadium.

29. In 1825, French King Charles X required that Haiti pay an "independence debt" of 150 million gold francs, which was equal to ten times the country's yearly earnings at the time. Haiti still had to pay France 90 million gold francs, which is around €17 billion in modern currency. In 1947, it was still making payments on this debt.

30. Raffi Stepanian, a resident of Queens, New York City, has made a living by sifting through the dirt and gravel in the crevices of the streets in the Diamond District in search of precious stones. Apparently, in the span of six days, he was able to amass enough gold for two sales totaling $819.

The Mughal emperor Shah Jahan's throne took seven years and four times as much money to construct as the Taj Mahal. The Koh-i-Noor Diamond was among the many priceless gems set into the throne, which itself was made of more than 2,500 pounds of gold and 500 pounds of valuable gemstones.

32. The Japanese use a technique called "kintsugi," where shattered ceramics are repaired with gold. It symbolizes the fact that an object's breaking is an integral part of its story that should not be hidden.

33. Bre-X, a Canadian penny stock, discovered billions of dollars' worth of gold in Indonesia in 1995. Its shares rose quickly, and its worth rose to $6.6 billion. The chief geologist committed suicide after discovering that the core sample was salted. The company's stock plummeted and became worthless overnight. No one was ever convicted because the main culprit vanished.

34. Battery-free electroplating was invented by Peru's ancient Moche civilization in the 1st century AD to coat copper in a thin coating of gold. Electrochemical replacement plating is feasible without electricity by altering the pH of the gold solution used in gilding. It was cheaper, faster, and better. Electrical plating allows for far thicker layers than the micron-thick ones used by this civilization.

35. Using a nuclear reactor or a particle accelerator, it is now totally conceivable to transmute base metals into gold, a task that alchemists have sought for ages but seemed impossible to accomplish. However, the high cost renders the procedure impractical.

In 2001, the shipwreck of the HMS Sussex (1694) was discovered by the treasure-hunting company Odyssey. Even though the Spanish government agreed to help the British authorities recover the loot, they still haven't allowed a team to inspect the location.

37. The Soviet "Order of Victory" is one of the rarest military honors in the world. It had 47 grams of platinum, 2 grams of gold, 19 grams of silver, 25 carats of ruby, and 16 carats of diamond. The value of the medal is believed to be $10 million.

38. The Asian "ant" mentioned by the historian Herodotus was hairy and about the size of a fox. It dug out gold from the ground, which the inhabitants then gathered. Most likely, this was the Himalayan marmot, which likes to dig tunnels in places where there is plenty of gold. The Indian subcontinent is home to several indigenous tribes that have made a living collecting gold from near their mound for centuries.

39. Many nations sold up their overseas holdings and gold to pay for the war effort during World War II. By 1947, the United States had amassed 70 percent of the world's gold reserves.

40. After the wreck of the SS Central America was found in 1988 and huge amounts of gold was recovered from it, 39 insurance companies that had paid out claims related to the shipwreck in 1857 sued the expedition team.