Gold has long been prized for its beauty and rarity, and has played a significant role in human culture and commerce for thousands of years. From its use as a medium of exchange in ancient civilizations to its modern applications in jewelry, electronics, and more, gold has a fascinating story to tell. In this article, we’ve compiled a list of 50 facts about gold that will give you a deeper understanding of this remarkable metal. From its physical properties and sources, to its cultural and economic importance, these facts will shed light on the many aspects of gold that make it so valuable and enduring.
1Total Gold on Earth
There is enough gold in the world to cover it 13 inches deep, or about halfway up a person's leg. Most of the gold, however, is located deep inside the earth, in its core. Tungsten isotope analysis shows that the vast majority of the gold found on the earth's surface originated from the mantle following a meteorite bombardment some 3900 million years ago.
2. Since the beginning of time, humans have poured more steel per hour than they have mined gold. The total amount of gold ever mined could fill a cube with sides measuring 70 feet (21 meters). Roughly 1,700,000,000 metric tons of steel was manufactured in 2017. This corresponds to a cube with a size of 1980 feet (600 m) on each side, assuming a density of 7.7 g/cm3.
3. Compared to the amount of gold found in a ton of gold ore, there is significantly more in a ton of mobile phones. To get 1 gram of gold, you need 1 ton of ore, but you can get the same amount by recycling 41 cell phones.
4. The National Ocean Service estimates that there are around 20 million tons of gold floating around in seawater. But this gold is dispersed throughout the world's oceans. Each liter of saltwater contains, on average, around 13 billionths of a gram of gold. While there may be gold reserves beneath the ocean floor, doing so profitably is now beyond our capabilities.
5. The inertness and yellow color of gold can be explained by Einstein's theory of relativity. The electrons in gold are moving so near the speed of light that their orbits are being shrunk by relativity. It absorbs blue light, reducing the energy gap, which in turn reduces the reactivity of the outer electron.
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6Gold & Karat
Carob seeds have a fairly constant density; hence, they were historically employed as a standard for valuing precious metals and stones. The term "karat" originates from this concept and thus became a unit of measurement of the gold's purity.
7. A 12-year-old kid in North Carolina in 1803 sparked the first gold rush in the United States when he discovered a 17-pound gold nugget on his father's property. Up until 1829, all of the gold used by the country's mints came from this mine.
8. Since cash is taken upon arrest but jewelry is not, pimps often wear expensive gold jewelry that they can "re-pawn" to get out of jail.
9. An ancient Buddha statue said to be 600 years old was accidentally broken in 1955, revealing a gold statue hidden inside it. It was thought to be worth $250 million, with the body being 40% pure, the volume between the chin and the forehead being 80% pure, and the hair and topknot, weighing 45 kg, being 99% pure gold.
10. 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.
11Operation Fish
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.
12. 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.
13. 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."
14. 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.
15. 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.
16Paying the Headsman Gold
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.
17. 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.
18. 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.
19. 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.
20. The oldest book in existence is the Golden Orphism Book, often called the Etruscan Gold Book. Someone excavating a ditch in Bulgaria over 70 years ago uncovered this golden artifact.
21Indian Household Gold
11% of the world's gold is in the hands of Indian housewives. That is greater than the combined reserves of the United States, the International Monetary Fund, Switzerland, and Germany.
22. When King Musa I of Mali undertook the Hajj pilgrimage in 1324, he did so with 80 camels carrying a total of 50 to 300 pounds of gold and a caravan of 12,000 slaves, each of whom carried 4 pounds of gold. He dispersed so much gold to the needy in the regions he visited that it triggered widespread economic collapse and price inflation.
23. In 2010, a man named Forrest Fenn hid $2 million worth of gold in an unknown location. The only clue to the location was a poem. For years, people came as close as 200 feet to the treasure but couldn't find it until a 32-year-old Michigan medical student named Jack Stuef discovered it in 2020.
24. There are gold-plated ATMs that distribute gold bars in a number of countries (the first ATM was located in Abu Dhabi). The equipment is secured "like an armored car" and put through explosive tests to deter theft.
25. For anyone who might assist in locating gold deposits, Goldcorp once paid $575,000. After paying out a winner, the Canadian mining corporation dug out gold there that was worth $6 billion.
RE: Fact# 2 – Total Gold Poured: Are we sure that gold is as rare as steel is common?
We discover gold extremely infrequently in thinly scattered “veins,” but virtually always in particles as minuscule as motes of dust.
While there are numerous enormous amounts of iron, it is what gives Australian, British, Arizonian, and Bulgarian red sandstone its distinctive hue. That stuff is practically everywhere.
Throughout history, iron has been observed falling from the sky and subsequently discovered by wandering around the area where it appeared to have landed. This “Meteoric Iron” contains significant amounts of other metals, making it very easy and pleasurable to work with and giving it a black hue.
The other component of the contemporary steel process is carbon, which is found in meteors, asteroids, stars, and living creatures, as well as their fossils like as coal, jet, and numerous related minerals.
That explains the “famous sword made from a meteorite” myth; you’d wind up with an iron blade full of impurities but with seemingly virtually everlasting edge retention compared to a bronze or brass edged weapon.
Actually, meteoric iron was utilized because it was quite pure, consisting mostly of iron and nickel. It was created naturally as a strong yet working metal, in contrast to earth’s raw mined iron, which needs extensive processing and impurity removal to be useable. Because it was more practical and needed less training and equipment to utilize, it was employed far earlier native iron.
This is why some gold that has been discovered was not worth recovering until it had its own TV program. It’s microscopic pieces of dust that have been collected in sand bars by streams and waves over thousands of years.
The earth’s crust contains 4-5% iron, making it quite prevalent. We make extensive use of it. We don’t utilize gold to construct our vehicles and structures; instead, we use a lot of steel.
RE: Fact# 1 – Total Earth’s Gold:
I’m just wondering how we know that’s what’s in the core given that we’ve never been to the core?
We have conducted some intriguing radio frequency tests. There’s also a lot of math. To determine the speed at which objects move, the densities at various levels, and the magnetic flux. I’m not a geologist, but I’m familiar with the analyses involved. And, of course, we will be incorrect in some way. But what’s the fun in finding out your gift before it’s opened?
Seismic waves move at varying speeds and angles depending on the material through which they pass. You can figure out what the inside is composed of by measuring them from all around the world and performing some math.
Why isn’t gold flowing out of volcanoes then, which is essentially where lava originates from the core, or at least some gold coming out? I’m sure gold has a lower melting point than rock, but is the atomic weight higher, and hence rock?
RE: Fact# 4 – Gold in Ocean:
I’m not aware of the specifics, but there was a man on Shark Tank who once boasted that he knew how to construct a device that could use sea water to “produce gold.” Everyone laughed at him and he was fired. It sounds more plausible with this fact.
A gram of gold is valued at $48.59 atm. You would need to filter about 80 million liters of seawater to get 50 bucks worth of gold.
There is a substance that resembles a sponge that can really pull gold atoms out of saltwater. The plan is to use the material to build long tubes that will be submerged in water and placed in the ocean, where they will passively accumulate gold as water flows through them. They can be gathered later and chemically treated to recover the gold. I’d need to find the article, but it seems doable on a large scale.
RE: Fact# 6 – Carob Seeds:
Carob seeds are frequently substituted for chocolate, especially by health-conscious people. Since it is not dangerous to dogs like chocolate is, I’ve even seen it used in dog treats as well.
I was raised by crazy hippies who claimed carob could be used in place of chocolate. They just state that it is, but in my opinion it is not.
What did it taste like? Is it actually chocolatey?
Actually, no. They can manipulate it to create something that resembles chocolate, but it would be like claiming Nerds are a better alternative to Sour Patch Kids. The only real resemblance between them is that they are both sour candies.
Carob chips are more difficult to utilize than chocolate chips and have a nuttier, earthier flavor than chocolate. That’s not to say it’s horrible; it’s simply that it’s not chocolate.
In Spain, farmers use it to feed their animals, so it’s not really considered a replacement for anything; it’s just animal feed.
Funny story: While visiting Alicante’s hinterland one day, I saw abandoned carob pods in the fields. Although I tasted a cocoa flavor, it strikes me as more tamarind-like and dryer. I wondered what they were doing with it.
RE: Fact# 11 – Operation Fish:
The Bush administration sent $12 billion in $100 bills to Iraq during the war to pay contractors, bribe warlords, and do other things. This was the largest transfer of cash in US history. One shipment of $2.4 billion worth of shrink-wrapped $100 bills was flown into Iraq on military cargo planes.
It quickly disappeared into the desert.
Almost nobody knew where the money went, who paid for it, or who got it. The government still doesn’t know where most of the money went, but it’s likely that a fair amount of it ended up in the hands of our enemies.
That’s because once we gave it to the Iraqi government, it was no longer ours to account for. Critics think that it was used the way you said it was. But since it was up to the Iraqis to get the news out, critics wrongly think that the money just disappeared. Since the Iraqi government couldn’t use its own currency at the time, it’s likely that most of the money went to pay Iraqi government workers.
But, hey, who cares about little things like context?
RE: Fact# 9 – Golden Buddha:
So they found out it was gold because they dropped it while trying to move it right?
“A key was also found encased in plaster at its base, which can be used to disassemble the statue, allowing for easier transportation.”
Serious facepalm
Buddha’s intervention. “Lads hold up, there’s an easier way to do this.”
Not a single “before” picture in the entire article, though. I’d like to know what the original piece looked like.
Here’s one
RE: Fact# 8 – Pimps With Gold:
‘Pawn Star’ Rick Harrison: “And who buys the jewelry from Harrison? Pimps — and there’s a good reason why. “When you get arrested for pandering, they take your cash — because the cash was obtained illegally — but they don’t take away your jewelry,” Harrison explains. “And a pimp knows that if he buys jewelry in a pawn shop, if [he] brings it back to a pawn shop and gets a loan against it, [they’ll] always get half of what you paid for it — as opposed to buying it in a jewelry store, when [they] don’t know what [they’re] going to get. So, when they get arrested, they will always have someone bring their jewelry down to me. I will loan them half of what they paid for it — and that’s their bail money.”
How do they know the money was acquired unlawfully?
They don’t have to.
Source
“United States v. Approximately 64,695 Pounds of Shark Fins” is a hilarious name for a court case. I’m visualizing 32 tons of rotting fish sitting in the defendants box now.
RE: Fact# 7 – 17-Pound Gold Nugget:
I remember this from my NC history. That gold nugget sat as a doorstep for several years until they took it to a jeweler and got it appraised. The jeweler paid them $3.50 for it, and sold it for $3,600.
When I first read that comment, I felt horrible for the farmer (John Reed). At the time, $3.50 was about equivalent to one week’s wage, therefore $3,500 represented around 20 years of income.
But the story is not over yet. Evidently, he later learned the real worth of the “rock” he had sold, and:
Edit: Math is hard
Since $3,500 would be the equivalent of more than 19 years’ worth of wages, I believe you computed it as $350.
RE: Fact# 12 – Gold Reserve Act:
There was a justification for it. Gold had to be used to back up dollars. To back the money the government sought to produce, there wasn’t enough gold on hand. I believe that the dollar had to be 40% backed by gold, meaning that the government could only print $50 for every ounce of gold it had. They were now able to bring $85 into circulation for every ounce of gold by seizing all of it and raising the price. The government was able to generate enough money to aid in bringing America out of the Great Depression when you combine the rise in the amount of money they could print per ounce with the increase in the amount of gold they owned.
They did not take someone else’s gold, increase the price, and then return the gold to the original owner. Because they made owning gold illegal, they were unable to achieve that.
If I recall correctly, they took this action in response to gold hoarding brought on by the depression. Wealthy individuals were not investing in the economy, which harmed the underprivileged and slowed recovery.
How would the government decide who gets how much money if the U.S. could just print more money to get out of the depression? I’m sorry if this is a dumb question, but I’m a law student, not a business or finance student, so I never learned how this would work. Do they just give everyone in the lower class money?
Oh, that’s cool. No, they didn’t just give it out that way. They had money for things such as the New Deal. There were things like public works and programs to help people in need. The government didn’t decide who to give X dollars to, but rather which program to spend X dollars on.
These programs had to be paid for by the government. The government could pay for its programs back then by printing money, but that money had to be backed by gold. The idea was that capital would be made by social welfare programs and government jobs.
Like, take Hoover Dam. The government thought that if there was more electricity in that area, more factories could open and more jobs would be created. So let’s hire a lot of people and buy a lot of building supplies. The cement companies made some money, a lot of people got jobs, and when the building was done, the area got a lot of electricity.
The same thing could be said about roads. We have a highway system called the Interstate that can handle a lot of freight. By making it easier to do business, the Interstate system helps the economy grow. A lot of businesses would not be able to exist without the Interstate. The Interstate wasn’t a project from the Great Depression; it was just one more example.
Or Social Security, old people have to work to stay alive. What if we just gave them money and they quit their jobs? Then a younger person, who might be able to work faster, could take their job. It also makes it easier for families to take care of their older relatives.
This was just a way to pay for programs that were supposed to help people, encourage growth, and make money.
In fact, this is one of the many things that took place and policies that were made that made the depression last for a whole decade. People think that FDR “got us out of the depression” with a long list of crazy policies like inflation, confiscation of savings, endless government spending, and huge deficits. This makes no sense to me. This went on for ten years under the worst conditions our country has ever seen. The economy didn’t start to grow again until after the war ended and millions of young men went back to work.
But somehow, none of this is taken into account, and the fact that FDR’s stupid policies made the Great Depression last longer than any other time in American history means that “he saved us.”
It is immature, crazy, and evil to steal gold from people under the threat of force to pay for deficits caused by irresponsible spending without thinking about the cost. I would be a crook and a con artist if I did that to pay off my credit cards. Our 4th grade social studies books say that because FDR does it, he is our savior.
That was the excuse.
In reality they had to reconcile the large amount of credit-dollars created during the WW1 and the 20s which caused the great depression with the amount of gold they had. It was the result. Not the cause. Nixon went off the gold standard – which was the honest thing to do – but at the time FDR couldn’t afford it politically.
But it’s true that it was all about printing more money. Unlike now back when money was tied to bullion it was meant to be worth “something”. So when governments wanted to rob people out of their wealth and purchasing power to “fix” the crisis they started they had to make sure that the bullion backing the currency was out of circulation. If dollar is backed with gold and people think it’s worth less then they ditch the dollar and pay with gold. There was a reason why in WW2 in Europe people paid in gold or dollars. They were supposed to be one of the few currencies which were tied to gold because every other country had a paper (bullshit) money monopolies in place.
Also for the smartass citing some pseudo-economist about gold hoarding. Historically it only occurred during crises like wars and debt extension. Countries got into trouble because their rulers or governments were adventurous. Not because evil Ferengi wanted to hoard gold. There is no economic profit in hoarding gold in peacetime or market expansion. Look what happened to gold price following 2008 and after 2012. First it spiked because the world was going to end and then it dropped because it didn’t.
However once government pretends it’s richer than it really is and prints money to finance wars hoarding becomes the smart move. So again it’s the result and not the cause. Gold hoarding is the result of wars and political crises. Not the other way around…. If you actually study history then you’ll see that every time there was a “liquidity ciriss” it was either kings not being able to fund their stupid wars of banks printing too many credit bills and getting caught with fraud. Only then both the kings and the bankers started telling everyone how they were the good guys and the gold hoarders were the evil ones. Which is what FDR did too…
EDIT: Oh yeah…and “economist here”. I forgot. I’m probably one of the few people here who actually did the learning (and even some teaching).
RE: Fact# 8 – Pimps With Gold:
Wow, I had no idea. If I start a pawnshop, I’ll sell “Pimp Bars.” Just nice, solid bars of gold that you can carry around quietly. So pimps with style don’t have to dress like thugs. But they still have proof that they are a dope a*s pimp.
But then it wouldn’t be jewelry and might be confiscated.
Don’t worry, they have these.
RE: Fact# 9 – Golden Buddha:
The fact that the statue could be easily taken apart into 9 pieces and put back together makes it 10 times cooler.