In a turbulent economy, gold has always seems like a reliable standard to hold on to. The metal has a rich history on earth, and I thought it might be wise to dig up ten facts about gold you may not know. Here are a few of the more interesting nuggets I unearthed.
1. Gold may have been the first metal worked by man. Ancient gold artifacts found date back to 4,000 BC, meaning they actually overlap with the famed “Stone Age.”
2. The Aztec word for gold is “teocuitlatl,” which means “excrement of the gods.” That would seem to indicate where a certainly idiom came from…
3. Gold is nearly endlessly recyclable, and as such, nearly 85% of the gold ever found throughout history is still being used today. 75% of all gold has been mined since 1910.
4. If all the gold in the world was amassed, handed to the US and sold at current prices, it would amount to roughly $10 trillion, not enough to cover the national debt.
5. Gold is incredibly malleable. So much so that a single ounce can be stretched into a 50 mile wire, or pressed into a flat 100 square foot sheet.
6. Nearly 80% of the world’s gold is used to make jewelry, while 13% is used for investment, coins and bars and such. The rest is designated for commercial use (ie. a dentist’s gold fillings).
7. There isn’t that much total gold in existence. In terms of pure gold, it’s said that all gold found throughout history would only amount to a 66 foot by 66 foot cube.
8. The oceans may hold the last great gold mines. As we start to exhaust gold on the surface of the earth, it’s been discovered that more can be found in the oceans a mile or two beneath the surface. The technology to extract that gold is now becoming a reality, but there are many environmental challenges in doing so.
9. The US has the most gold reserves in the world, but if you consider ornamentation, India takes the crown as it uses almost 20% of the world’s decorative gold by itself.
10. The first documented discovery of gold in the US was in 1799 when Conrad Reed found a 17 pound lump. Until it was identified three years later, Reed had been using it as a doorstop.
[Photo via Getty Images]
