Saturday, January 30, 2010

The Attraction Of Gold Through Ages

By Jack Wagon

"Through the ages, men and women have cherished gold, and many have had a compelling desire to amass great quantities of it--so compelling a desire, in fact, that the frantic need to seek and hoard gold, has been aptly named "gold fever"."

Gold is the oldest valuable metal well known to man. It was amongst the earliest metals to be mined for the reason that it normally occurs in its untainted form, not collective with other elements. Gold has always been a fascination. Man, wishes to get it, and man has gone to conflicts for it. Earliest man correlated gold to sun, and thought that it was a resource of immense supremacy. Ever since early times, gold has been thought to have acuity of prosperity.

The history of gold goes back. People have been using it in making jewellery since the Stone Age, although its exact time of discovery is not known. Wealth and beauty are significant with gold. It was widely used in the decorations of tombs, temples, and palaces of emperors in many ancient civilisations. However, it is perceived that proper gold mining started as early as 4000 B.C. The Sumer civilisation of southern Iraq used gold to create a wide range of jewellery, and other ornaments around 3000 B.C. This jewellery often had very sophisticated, and varied styles.

Gold was established as standard medium for exchange in the international trade in the year 1500 B.C. during the same period, various methods of checking the purity of gold were also devised. The gold coins were used for the first time by the Citizens of Kingdom of Lydia (western Turkey) in 700B.C. to satisfy their greed of gold, European armies looted Inca and Mayan civilisations during the Middle Ages. Gold was equated with gods and rulers, and it was sought in their name, and was dedicated to their glorification in most of the ancient civilisations.

The importance of gold can be judged by the fact that most of the achievements are rewarded in the form of gold medals, and decorations. This trend has been in use for many centuries, as the Ancient kings, and emperors always used to offer gold, as gift or award to those who had performed great feats of bravery in wars, and battles. In the same way, the winners of athletic events and other such competitions are usually awarded with gold medals.

In the alchemist term, gold is known as the noble metal. The reason behind this is that it does not oxidise under ordinary conditions. The chemical symbol of gold Au is derived from the Latin word aurum. If the gold is in pure form, then it has a metallic lustre, and is sun yellow in colour. The other mentionable property of gold is that pure gold is chemically unreactive.

Gold is highly used in coinage, jewellery, and other arts. Even the paper money is actually a receipt redeemable for gold. A certain weight of gold was given the name of a unit of currency in an economic system known as the gold standard. In the year 1792, the U.S. Congress adopted a bimetallic standard (gold and silver) for the currency of the new nation, with gold valued at $19.30 per troy ounce. Gold was replaced by a system of convertible currency following the Bretton Woods system after the World War II.

Therefore, it can be assumed that the gold has been the most sought after metal for ages, and the value of gold has been accepted all over the world since ancient times.

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