The 123s of Gold
Gold was a form of currency before the American Dollar, the Indian Rupee, or the British Pound was even thought of. In fact, gold has been valued as a form of currency almost since it was found. In some parts of the world today it is still used to denote wealth. Rare and very heavy, it has been used throughout the ages as a status symbol for the rich, kings, and merchants alike. Welcome to our little tour into the world of gold. We hope you enjoy it.
Denoting itself as one of the worlds most valuable and precious metals, gold sets itself apart from the rest of the precious metals. It is so malleable and soft that just one mere ounce of it will produce a wire that can stretch 5 miles in length. If you would prefer to pound it rather than stretch it, you could create a sheet that will cover 100 square feet. Because it cannot corrode or rust it will last almost indefinitely.
Gold is all around us. It can be found in our rivers and seas, in the earth\’s crust beneath our feet and in our plants as well. It is very expensive and difficult to extract, and this is why it is so pricey. It takes about 2.5 to 3 tons of gold ore to produce a mere ounce of pure gold…what a percentage!
Here\’s a trivia question for you. Do you happen to know what popular metal is most often found in today\’s jewelry? Any guesses? You got it…first try…it is gold! It is used in our heart jewelry, fine jewelry, cool jewelry, you name it. Most of this gold goes into one type of jewelry though…the wedding band. Since it is so soft and malleable, it is often not found by itself, but in combination with other metals. It is this combination that makes it durable and strong and ensures that it will not be bent so easily. Do you happen to know what a combination of two or more metals is? It\’s an alloy. Most of the gold that is used in our jewelry is an alloy.
So, what are these various types of jewelry you ask? How about: (1) Gold jewelry, (2) Rose gold jewelry, (3) Wholesale gold jewelry, (4) White gold jewelry, (5) Gold plated jewelry, (6) Gold body jewelry, (7) 18k gold jewelry, (8) Gold charm jewelry, (9) 24k gold jewelry, (10) 14k gold jewelry, (11) Gold horse jewelry, (12) 22k gold jewelry, (13) Indian gold jewelry, (14) Plus other beautiful gold jewelry items.
You have probably heard of the word karat before, but do you know what it means? The word itself is derived from the word for the fruit of the carob tree. For example, the Arabic word girat, the Italian word carato, and the Greek word keration. The seeds of the carob tree were used in the measurement of the size of precious gems in the ancient world. There was a pure gold Byzantine coin called the solidus. It weighed in at 24 karats, so the 24 karat mark (i.e.: 24K or 24KT) became the mark used to indicate that the item being looked at was make of pure gold.
That\’s it. We\’ll wrap up this tour of the world of gold for now. Please visit our blog where we will go into more details on the subject of gold, heart jewelry, and just jewelry in general. See you there…
Betsy Johnson has two great blogs: heart jewelry and open heart jewelry if you would like to learn more.
