Some Interesting Gold Facts

• The term "gold" comes from an old Anglo-Saxon world 'gelo', or yellow.
• Gold bars were made as early as 4000 BC.
• Gold is able to conduct electricity and heat, gold never rusts.
• The chemical symbol is Au from the Latin word 'aurum' which means "shining dawn."
• Copper and gold were the first metals to be discovered by man.
• Native Scottish gold is the purest, at 22.8 carats.
• Gold is so ductile that an ounce of gold can be stretched to a length of over fifty miles or beaten into a sheet to cover a hundred square feet.
• Gold leaf may be only 0.18 microns (seven millionths of an inch) thick; a stack of 7,055 sheets would be no thicker than a dime.
• A cubic foot of gold weighs approximately half a ton.
• Gold can be made into thread and used in embroidery.
• Astronauts' space helmets receive a coating of gold so thin (0.00005 millimeters, or 0.000002 inches) that it is partially transparent. The astronauts can see through it, but even this thin layer reduces glare and heat from sunlight.
• Precious metals are measured in troy ounces. This comes from the French town of Troyes where this unit of measurement was first used. A troy ounce is approximately 10% heavier than an avoirdupois ounce.
• The increased gold production, beginning about 1890 and extending to date, is held responsible for much of the increase in the cost of living, due to the rapid rise in the price of commodities. Among many causes advanced to explain the situation this gold production theory is the favorite with a certain school of public men and economists.