Disclosure: Some of the links in this article are from sponsors. The list below is an honest review gathered from thorough research, experience, and consumer-based feedback.
Gold Stands Strong Throughout History
Throughout history, gold has been at the forefront of all global dynasties.
The Shang Dynasty in 1600 B.C. - 1046 B.C. used gold as currency. In Thailand, gold is a year-round tradable commodity.
Spanish conquistadors in the 16th century used the love of gold to communicate with the indigenous civilizations.
Every corner of the earth has seen some effect on their economy due to their interaction with gold.
Whether a reason for war or a source of trade, gold has been a brick in the wall.
Fairytales, generational lessons, and countries' foundations revolve around a soft metal someone just accidentally discovered one day.
Best Overall Choice
5/5 Rating
- Best client feedback
- Most transparent
- Best customer service
Ancient Civilizations and Their Love of Gold
The Dynasties of China used gold to repair items.
When an item would break, they would piece it back together using gold as the bond.
It was not useless. They still have a function but look different.
Items that have been repaired with gold have a higher value in the antique world. The Persian Empire was the first to use gold as a coin. Achaemenid coinage called the Daric was punched using clay tablets. The minting of gold coins would not begin until 330 B.C. in Iran under Alexander the Great.
Egyptians and Gold
Before coins, Eqyptians made gold ornament accessories to show status and station. Gold formed jewelry was worn by both men and women.
Settled on the nutrient-rich banks of the Nile River, the Egyptians had the finer of things.
The great Nefertiti in the 18th Dynasty of Egypt was at odds with her husband Akhenaten until his death about the correct god to worship.
Once Aten died, Nefertiti took the ruling position building an entire city in gold dedicated to the sun god Ra.
Gold, being the same color as the Sun, seems like a logical choice.
The lost city of gold was found in Lexor, though its origins have been through a few stages.
Gold became an offering. The more lavish a tomb, the more respected the person was in life.
Offerings to pay the gatekeeper to cross the river Styx were placed with the dead before the location was sealed.
Ancient Greek and Gold
The Ancient Greek's use of gold sets a precedent for the art world as a whole.
From the tiny ornamental details, Greeks had a way of showing the apodeictic obsession with gold as a thing of beauty and science.
Gold in this dynamic was used to tell a story.
Though Egyptians found a way to determine purity in gold through fire assaying, Archimedes realized that the weight of gold was adjustable when an element was used as a reactant to alter its stability. Alchemy, the chemical alteration of base metals into gold, took off as an ulterior science producing greats such as Merlin.
The Bible and Gold
Used as a religious text, a history book, or a book of science, it shows the history of gold and includes predictions using gold.
The destruction of self by the Ark of the Covenant depicts material worship.
The use of gold is one of the telling uses in the statue of the Anti-Christ.
Gold is mentioned in the bible 417 times. Gematria 417 means live life to the fullest, and the Light is God. A masculine noun meant to show the absolute.
In Revelations, gold is used to describe the city inside the wall built of Jasper.
Streets of gold are a common phrase from the bible used by immigrants when writing home in the 1920s.
1792- The United States Adopts a Gold and Silver Standard
The dollar used to be backed by gold, and the dollar used to set exchange standards. April 2, 1792, established the U.S. Mint and regulated coinage in the United States.
The Coinage Act of 1792 "authorized federal government use of the Bank of the United States to hold its reserves and establish a fixed ratio of gold to the U.S. dollar.
Gold and Silver were used as legal tender too.
Notable Gold Rushes in History
Richard Barnes Mason was credited with writing the letter that started the California Gold Rush. A military officer appointed as the military Governor of California in 1847 wrote a letter to President Polk reporting the finding of where gold comes from in Sutter's Mill. From that letter, the settlement of the West and the U.S. gold rush flourished in the following years, creating jobs and boosting the economy.
1851 brought about gold rushes in Australia: Just like the gold rush in the United States, this gold rush brought immigrants and families looking to end all their financial woes.
New Zealand, in 1861, drew in the prospectors from California and Australia.
Pikes Peak or Bust was the beginning of a pop-cultural call to action when Colorado thought it could continue the California phenomenon.
South Dakota in 1874 grew into icon status when Gen. Custer led a brigade into the Lakota Nation and found gold on French Creek.
South African gold stunned the world in 1886 with a 1.2 billion dollar gold rush stretching 250 miles which continues today.
The Yukon, 1897, saw Alaska becoming an established location for inhabiting. Oh, the wonders of the love of gold.
1972 - Gold Standard Ends with the Vietnam War
The long-held belief is that the reason for the Vietnam War was gold. Its mining has been at the forefront of many wars and conflicts.
A prominent mine in Vietnam is the Bong Mieu gold mine.
The financial world was tumbling into change while the dollar was hitting rock bottom against lesser power factions.
The market was led by the Rothschilds and the London gold pool. With inflation rising, the American government was afraid of golds instability causing another collapse.
The argument became that the gold standard and fixed exchanges create a framework that begins to be taken advantage of and manipulated in ways that are not in the best interest of the collective. Business cycles were affected by the chaos.
As control was spiraling during Nixon's presidency,The Nixon Shock, it was decided that foreign exchanges were a threat to the dollar.
To keep foreign powers from draining the U.S gold reserve, America ended the use of gold to back the dollar in the Bretton Woods System in hopes of preventing another depression.
Gold pricing charts were stuck at $35 dollars for years. In the 1980s the price of gold skyrocketed.
Why is Gold So Valuable?
The chemical element called gold is found on the periodic table under the chemical symbol AU.
Gold is considered a precious metal; before rare earth minerals were discovered, gold and other precious metals were hard to find.
Elementally, gold is the most obvious choice as a system of exchange. It is a sustainable material that can weather well, and visually it is attractive.
The human brain gravitates towards gold, making it easy to distinguish. Humans have had an obsession with gold since its discovery.
Objects, including gold, only have value because someone decided that it had value and convinced someone else that it had value.
In Conclusion
We will have to wait and see what the future holds for the foundation of many economies.
The instability of countries plays a significant role in the existence of gold as a global mainstay.
The ever-changing markets weave a tangled web in the field of minerals.
Afghani mining, being brought to the forefront in recent months in the Helmand Province, will be something to watch concerning the value and significance of gold.
Such aggressive mining of gold affects the prices of everyday goods that rely on gold to function.
