Gold Trivia
Here is some Trivia about Gold
- Of the 92 natural elements in the earth’s crust, Gold ranks 58th in rarity.
- Every state in the U.S. has some gold deposits.
- In 1542, Francisco Pizarro took more gold from the Inca in a week than European miners produced in a year. The conquistadors brought so much gold from the New World to Europe that they increased supply by 500% and started the first gold-induced inflation. Other inflations caused by sudden gold supplies happened during the U.S. and Australian gold rushes in the 19th century.
- If the U.S.’s pile of gold in Ft. Knox (147.3 million troy ounces according to the U.S. Mint) were to back the U.S. M1 money supply on an even basis, the gold would be worth $940 an ounce.
- When gold is legal tender, governments try to regulate or manipulate its value, and that’s always difficult–when Roosevelt raised gold from $20.67 to $35 in 1934, it immediately devalued the dollar by 40%.
- But from 1786 to 1933, the U.S. government only allowed the price of gold to rise from $17.92 to $20.67. A 15% increase in the official price of gold in 141 years. In the same span, U.S. GDP grew about 28,000%.
- Among the worst debasers of gold coins were Henry VIII, Diocletian and Nero. Debasement is a hidden tax. Henry added base metals to coins. Nero reduced silver content and made the gold coins smaller.
- When used in trade, gold coins wear out in about 18 years.
- It is believed that most of the gold coins used in trade between the U.S. and the West Indies before the U.S. Revolution were 15-20% “light.” Crooks and traders put coins in a coarse bag and shook them to create gold dust–called sweating the coins. They traded the coins at full value and made money on the dust.
- For years, banks sent gold coins to England from the U.S. and back again to maintain trade balances. In each trip, $178 in value from every $1 million in gold shipped, rubbed off during transport, according to an 1894 book on banking practices.
- When gold was discovered at Sutter’s Mill in January 1848, California was still officially Mexican territory.
- The Gold Rush expended 125 million troy ounces of gold, worth more than $50 billion by today’s standards.
- In 1854 the largest gold nugget ever found was in California at Carson Hill above the Stanislaus River. It weighed 195 pounds and was valued at $43,534 in the currency of the day.
- In the flood of 1862 all traces of Sutter’s Mill were obliterated . Not until another flood in 1924 exposed its undeveloped foundations was it “discovered.” The mill was re-created using old photographs and Marshall’s own drawings.
- In 1869 the name “Mother Lode” was coined and referred to only five counties: Mariposa, Tuolumne, Calaveras, Amador and El Dorado. Actually more gold was later found in Placer, Nevada, Sierra and Plumas counties.
- More than 80% of the gold in the Mother Lode is still in the ground.
- An ounce of gold can be stretched into a wire 80 kms (50 miles) long.
- Pure gold is also very soft. A single gram can be beaten into a sheet of one square meter!
- The term “gold” is the from the Proto-Indo-European base *ghel / *ghol meaning “yellow,” “green,” or possibly “bright.”
- Gold is so rare that the world pours more steel in an hour than it has poured gold since the beginning of recorded history.
- Gold has been discovered on every continent on earth.
- Gold melts at 1064.43° Centigrade. It can conduct both heat and electricity and it never rusts
