Gold and its Many Uses.

Though I would love to sell you some of our wonderful gold coins. That's not the purpose of today's blog. Today's blog will be focusing primarily on the world wonder known as Gold.

If someone were to ask you, what is Gold? What would your answer be? A shiny metal? A ring? necklace? or would your answer be, A chemically inert element. Widely used throughout history for things ranging from currency, religious symbolism, electronics to medicine and sun-visors for space suits.

A common misconception with Gold is that it is only a rare shiny expensive piece of jewelry. What most people don't know about gold is how abundant it actually is and the vast array of uses humans have found for it. Well if you compare gold to some of its metal brethren, like steel for example. Then you would be safe in assuming it is rare. The world pours more steel in one hour then it has poured Gold since the beginning of recorded history. But despite that an estimated 165,000 tons or roughly 5.3 billion troy ounces of Gold has been mined in human history.

South African Mine

Gold has been found on every continent on the planet. In South Africa, there are mines that descend 12,000 feet and reach temperatures of 130 degrees. To produce an ounce of gold, it requires 38 man hours, 1400 gallons of water, and enough electricity to run a large house for ten days. On top of that it takes chemicals such as cyanide and borax to remove the Gold from the mine.  Lastly, it is estimated that about 50% of the worlds gold was recovered from South Africa. 

The world of industry has found many uses for Gold. Due to Gold's ability to reflect electromagnetic radiation, it has been used in a number of aeronautical industries. Such as protective coating on many satellites, infrared protective face plates in thermal protection suits as well as astronauts' helmets and electronic warfare planes like the EA-6B Prowler.

Because of Gold's conductive properties and resistance to corrosion, it has also been used for electrical wiring and electrical connectors. Other uses for Gold in electronics include sliding contacts inside toggles in highly humid or corrosive atmospheres, as well as contacts with a very high failure cost (certain computers, communications equipment, spacecraft, jet aircraft engines).

The very high luster, desirable yellow color and a resistance to tarnish make Gold a perfect candidate for Fine Jewelry. For thousands of years gold has been used to make ornamental objects and  jewelry. Almost every established culture throughout history has used gold as a symbol of power, beauty, purity and accomplishment.

Along with being symbols of power, beauty, purity and accomplishment. Gold has been used most as currency. Throughout history gold has been closely linked to monetary value. The first gold coins were minted in the Lydia Kingdom within the ancient region of Asia Minor (Turkey) around 610 BC. The first coins minted in China are thought to date around 600 BC.

To be concluded later this week...

Remember, there are no guarantees about whether or not a coin or any collectible, material thing or instrument in any asset class will increase in value and past performance of a coin's return is not indicative of future results.

Coin Mercantile