Gold Bullion for Fun

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Fun Facts with Gold Bullion

Let's start with a little background about gold, then we will get to the fun stuff. Gold bullion is the term we use when gold has been refined to a point of 99.99% purity. It is then coined or formed into gold bars so as to be convenient for commerce or a store of wealth. Gold is eternal because it has intrinsic value. It has value in an of itself, not like paper money. Gold was used for it's value before there was a concept of money. Most likely it was traded between cave men.

Gold has been the cause of much disturbance on this earth because of it's intrinsic value. Wars have been fought for it and individuals have been murdered for it. Kings have used it for power and their own glory. Pirates have plundered it. But it has also been treasured and endeared between loved ones and passed down generation after generation in families. So, it has also been the cause of much happiness. It is treasured because it is a rare commodity. Added to this, much of it is out of circulation because of accumulated savings by nations and individuals. It is estimated that only about 161,000 tons of gold have been taken out of the ground in recorded history.

If we look at some fun facts about gold we can be entertained as well as amazed. As we speak about this, think of an object of gold that you have. The gold in your ring or locket could have once belonged to a King or been a masterpiece of creativity thousands of years ago.

Gold is virtually indestructible. It is possible to liquefy it in aqua regia, which is a mixture of nitric acid and hydrochloric acid, but it's atoms are still there. When this liquid is allowed to evaporate the atoms join up again and there is your chunk of gold bullion again. It is continually being melted down and changed into another shape, century after century. Recycling at its finest!

One ounce of gold bullion is about the size of a cube of sugar. It is very dense, and that is why it is so heavy. That cube can be beaten into a sheet almost 300 feet square, and so thin that light will pass through it. This is because it is malleable. If we were to stretch it out, that ounce could be a wire 50 miles long! This is because it is ductile.

Gold bullion will not tarnish or corrode, (this is the process of oxidation). It can be polished to a mirror-like finish. But in it's pure state it is very soft and scratches easily. For this reason jewelery is a combination of different metals. As each of these different metals, some precious and some non-precious (such as copper), are mixed with gold, the resultant metal, an alloy, takes on different properties. These new properties will give it the desired quality for hardness, ductility, color, melting temperatures, and oxidation, as needed for it's use. We usually refer to this dilution as the carat of gold. This would give us 24K or 24 carat for pure gold bullion and 12K for a 50% gold content.

Gold is an excellent conductor of electricity. That is the reason why it is used in electronics, such as your computer. Gold and gold bullion have thousands of uses from medicine to space telescopes.

So when you next look at your ring, just ponder for a moment where it might have been 2 or 3 thousand years ago.

We mentioned that gold is indestructible. And that the amount of it on earth doesn't change greatly from century to century. This brings up the question about how it gets from one age to the next, or one use to the next. When one use has ended and we want to turn it into something else we call it scrap, valuable scrap nonetheless. But that is a good topic for another fun time with gold bullion.

About the author: Jack F Welch is a Certified Dental Technician with 40 years in the dental industry, and has turned about 10,000 ounces of gold alloy into beautiful dental restorations. He has a BA degree in Computer Science.