Gold - (Au)
Melting Point: 1948 Fahrenheit \ 1063 Celsius
Boiling Point:  5173 Fahrenheit \  2856 Celsius


Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Gold is the most malleable and ductile of all metals; a single gram can be beaten into a sheet of 1 square meter, or an ounce into 300 square feet. Gold leaf can be beaten thin enough to become translucent. The transmitted light appears greenish blue, because gold strongly reflects yellow and red. High quality pure metallic gold is tasteless and scentless.

Gold is very dense, a cubic meter weighing 19,300 kg. By comparison, the density of lead is 11,340 kg/m3, and only out weighed by the densest element, osmium, is 22,610 kg/m3. A total of 165,000 tonnes of gold have been mined in human history, as of 2009. This is roughly equivalent to 5.3 billion troy ounces or, in terms of volume, about 8500 m3, or a cube 20.4 m on a side. The world consumption of new gold produced is about 50% in jewelry, 40% in investments, and 10% in industry.

Other Uses:
Gold jewelry is an alloy of gold and other metals such as copper, silver, nickel and zinc. Different combinations of these other metals are what give gold its different colors such as white, rose, green, etc. In the U.S., the percentage of actual gold in the alloy is expressed in karats. Note that karats is a percentage of gold while the carat is a measure of weight associated with diamonds and other gems.

Pure gold is 24k or 24 karats but is too soft to be used in jewelry and other applications. 18k gold is 75% gold, 14k is 58.5% and 10k is 41.6%. The minimum percentage or karatage to be legally sold as real gold in the U.S. is 10k or 41.6%. In Canada and Mexico those values are 9k and 8k respectively. Imported gold jewelry may be marked differently than with the k symbol. For instance, European gold is marked as a percentage multiplied by ten, e.g. 14k would be marked 585 and 18k would be marked 750 and so on.

While pure gold is yellow in color, gold can also appear to have other colors. These colors are generally obtained by alloying gold with other elements in various proportions. As you can read below, there are hundreds of possible alloys and mixtures, many of which are not listed here, but all again let you understand more closely how complex it can be to get mixed gold reversed back into its state of 24k pure gold.

Pieces that are gold plated are often marked G.E.P., gold electroplate, gold plated, or electro-plaqué d'or.

ELECTROPLATE
Electroplating (also called Galvanotechnics after its inventor, Luigi Galvani) is a process in which one metal is coated with another metal using electricity. In jewelry, inexpensive metals are frequently electroplated with more expensive metals, like gold (gold plating), copper (electrocoppering), rhodium (rhodanizing), chromium (chromium plating), or silver (silver plating). The thickness of the metal coat varies. Electrogilded coating is the thinnest (less than 0.000007 inches thick); gold-cased metals have a coating thicker that 0.000007 inches.

PINCHBECK
Pinchbeck (also known as "false gold") is a alloy of copper that looks like gold. Pinchbeck was invented by the British watchmaker Christopher Pinchbeck (1672-1732) in the early 18th century. Pinchbeck consists of 83% copper and 17% zinc. Ironically, there have been many imitations of Pinchbeck (which itself is an imitation).

GOLD FILLED
Gold filled (abbreviated G.F. or written as "doublé d'or") jewelry is made of a thin outer layer of gold atop a base metal. For example, jewelry marked 1/20 G.F. 12 Kt. is at least 1/20th gold and is layered with 12 karat gold. To be classified as gold-filled, a piece must be at least 1/20 gold by weight.

BLUE GOLD
Blue gold is gold with a bluish tinge. It has been alloyed with a mix that can include indium, gaillium, ruthenium, rhodium or iron in gold ratios from 46 - 79%.

GREEN GOLD
Green gold is gold that has been alloyed with a higher percentage of silver than copper.

GREY GOLD
Grey gold is gold that has been alloyed with 15-20% iron.

PINK GOLD
Pink gold (also known as rose gold) is gold with a tinge of pink. It has been alloyed with a mix of 90% copper and 10% silver.

ROSE GOLD
Rose gold (also known as pink gold) is gold with a pink tinge. It has been alloyed with a mix of 90% copper and 10% silver.

WHITE GOLD
White gold is gold that has been alloyed with a mix of nickel, zinc, copper, tin, and manganese.

YELLOW GOLD
Yellow gold is gold that has been alloyed with a mix of 50% copper and 50% silver.

PURPLE GOLD
Purple gold (also called amethyst gold and violet gold) is an alloy of gold and aluminium rich in gold-aluminium intermetallic (AuAl2). Gold content in AuAl2 is around 79% and can therefore be referred to as 18 karat gold.

BLACK GOLD
Black colored gold can be produced by various methods: Electroplating, using black rhodium or ruthenium, Patination by applying sulfur and oxygen containing compounds, processes involving amorphous carbon.

BLACK HILLS GOLD
Black Hills gold is gold jewelry that is made (but not always mined) in the Black Hills area of South Dakota, USA. Gold was first discovered in that area about 1874 by Horatio N. Ross. E.O Lampinen opened the Black Hills Jewelry Manufacturing Company in Deadwood, South Dakota in the early 1900's. Modern day Black Hills jewelry often has a three-color (yellow gold, pink gold and green gold) grape leaf and vine pattern. There are many companies that make Black Hills jewelry today, but by law, their creations must be made from Black Hills gold. This jewelry is often (but not always) 10 Karat gold.

Pricing:
All metals as a commodity have dollar values based on several different factors. Many common industrial metals are priced by the ton or pound while other rarer or precious metals are priced by ounces or fractions of ounces. When pricing precious metals mixed with other common metals only the value of the precious metals are considered as the other metals by weight are valueless in comparison and actually add cost to buyers of mixed metals to refine or separate them out from the precious metals.

Gold is normally traded by Troy ounce, (ozt) and many fraction of it.
1 grain (gr) = 64.79891 milligrams
1 gram (g) = 0.643 dwt = 15.432 gr = 0.0032 oz t = 0.035 oz av
1 pennyweight (dwt) = 1.555 g  = 24 gr = 0.05 oz t = 0.055 oz av
1 troy ounce (oz t) = 31.103 g = 20 dwt = 480 gr = 1.097 oz av
1 ounce avoirdupois (oz av) = 28.3495 g = 18.229 dwt = 0.911 oz t
1 troy ounce (oz t) 24K gold  Divisible into 24 ounce carats of 20 grains troy pure each


Gold has been widely used throughout the world as a vehicle for monetary exchange, either by issuance and recognition of gold coins or other bare metal quantities, or through gold-convertible paper instruments by establishing gold standards in which the total value of issued money is represented in a store of gold reserves.  Gold is only rivaled by Silver as a companion monetary exchange metal followed by a distant follower of copper now as gold / silver are at high values with copper also being a much needed industrial metal.  Silver on average is about 1/30th the price of gold. The ratio has varied from 1/15 to 1/100 in the past 100 years. According to the Silver Institute, silver's recent gains have greatly stemmed from a rise in investor interest and an increase in fabrication demand. In late April 2011, silver reached an all-time high of $49.76/ozt.


Metals and Currency and You!

The 20th century saw a gradual movement to fiat currency; backed by both controlled government and corporate sponsored media centers and the international "private" banking system to promote them. In a world where once all currency was backed up by one to one commodity based sovereign currencies, now all countries use declared value non-commodity reserve currencies. Example: The Federal Reserve Note is not Federal but Private Bank, Has NO Commodity Reserves to back up the paper/digital Note or IOU.  Even the use of metal in coinage has changed from previously used pure base metals as copper or nickel to more lesser value substitutes of metal alloys which are under way to an completely planned digital global currency of replacement.

This is a controversial topic for Constitutionalist and many others who studied more closely the linking's of those with ulterior motives of control over our countries monetary system and the country itself. The United States Constitution declares, in Article I, Section 10, "No State shall... make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts". Yet without a Constitutional Amendment and by just Act of Congress in the midnight hour they passed the Federal Reserve Private Banking System was passed.  Hear Free audio Link on this. (opens in new window)

Also to this controversy, the move to fractionalized fiat (money just declared) causes lack of connection to accountability. When the government borrows currency through the printing press, and the creation of such new currency is backed by no real commodities, the creation of that currency is inflationary, and arguably counterfeit. Certainly such an action is similar to a person creating currency in his or her basement. Whether or not such an action can be correctly interpreted as counterfeiting, there can be no doubt that inflating the currency is criminal. Many feel this is also the cause for a condition where the country's debt has now out paced in fiat currency available to pay it. Many believe there is a reality of current currency collapse in the USA and Globally.

When one to one commodities are traded against their same or difference in values a certainty of confidence is also traded. The fiat currency proponents claim it is all a confidence game any way which is true until the confidence is gone by just declaring fair value exchange with no reasonable relationship to it. An example being when the uncoupling occurs of any tangible REAL commodity to vast differences against worthless paper or digital money to the reality of actual supply as in more debt than physical assets to pay off the debt. This can be seen in recent history by many countries in default or on the precipice of default like with the USA with the country's mega trillion deficit against Gross National Product, or a 700 plus trillion dollar unregulated derivatives (form of commodity insurance) market greater than physical commodities or currency on record to offset it. This can cause a melt down in fiat claims of value giving way to hyper inflation to balance and or collapse back down to commodity realities. Example: Pre-USA during the Revolutionary War it was said that because of inflated borrowed promissory money, it took a wagon load of money to buy a wagon load of supplies.

Here are some examples of recent fiat currencies in dollar inflations and collapse.

One dollar bill inflated to...
Zimbabwe – 100 trillion dollars, 2006
Venezuela – 10,000 bolívares, 2002
Romania – 50,000 lei, 2001
Turkey – 5 million lira, 1997
Belarus – 100,000 rubles, 1996
Ukraine – 10,000 karbovantsiv, 1995
Angola – 500,000 kwanzas reajustados, 1995
Georgia – 1 million laris, 1994
Yugoslavia – 10 billion dinar, 1993
Brazil – 500 cruzeiros reais, 1993
Russia – 10,000 rubles, 1992
Zaire – 5 million zaires, 1992
Nicaragua – 10 million córdobas, 1990
Peru – 100,000 intis, 1989
Bolivia – 5 million pesos bolivianos, 1985
Argentina – 10,000 pesos argentinos, 1985
Bolivia – 5 million pesos bolivianos, 1985
Chile – 10,000 pesos, 1975

One such famous default was the Mexican Peso in 1994 called, The 1994 Economic Crisis in Mexico, widely known as the Mexican peso crisis or the Tequila crisis, was caused by the sudden devaluation of the Mexican peso in December 1994. As each currency implodes and a shift of resources rush in to fill the vacuum it dilutes even further the remaining commodity / currency valuations. Now many countries globally have faltering currencies and high defecates threatening the global economic structure in a much fear realistic domino effect. When fiat currencies collapse all resorts back down to realistic trade / barter of all commodities be it food or supplies and raw materials including metals. Those with commodities in had can then easily exchange into the next currency structure an the new given rate if desired whereas those who held the previous fiat currency have nothing to show for it.

For more information on this by non-corporate and non-mass media government controlled information see the following open information link.

Click >  FREEDOM  OF  INFORMATION   CENTER  (opens in new window)





Gold like Silver, even Copper, Brass, Bronze or other real commodity metals in any quantities are good to obtain, own, and have on hand to hedge and trade against inflation or worse, currency collapse.




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