The Glitter of Gold

Posted on 08. Feb, 2010 by Janet Bruno-Small in Mon Coeur Artist Blog

 By Janet Bruno-Small and Larry Small

 Through the millennium gold has been used by most culture as a means of expression. Rulers have used it to display their wealth, or to appease the gods and the goddesses as a token to enter the afterlife in good stead. Explorers have ventured into the unknown parts of the world to discover and to pillage the cities made of gold. It has been used to symbolize love and to adorn the things we love. It has been fashioned into objects of desire and it has been used to enhance beauty and give sex appeal. What makes gold such a precious and coveted metal?

Gold is a mineral that appears naturally in many parts of the world in underground deposits called veins or lodes. It also appears in riverbeds and streams after pressure in the earth forces veins of gold to the surface, exposing it to the natural elements. Erosion gradually removes the surrounding rocks, freeing the gold. The heavy metal settles to the bottom of riverbeds and streams, forming placer deposits, and remains until that lucky person stumbles on it. Ancient man discovered it in this form. It was crafted by the ancients into ornaments and jewelry as early as the Third millennium B.C. Some of us had the pleasure to view the great exhibit of the burial pieces recovered from the tomb of Tutankhamen (1340 B.C.). This grand tour exposed thousands of American art lovers to the majestic gold work of these Egyptian goldsmiths. Ancient Egypt was not alone in creating and covering gold decorative objects and jewelry. Magnificent gold objects have been found in burial sites of ancient cultures around the world: Phoenicia, Asia Minor, Greece, Rome, Persia, Asia, Africa, and the Americas.

Much later in history in the 1530s, the ruthless Spaniard Pizarro brought Black Death, pestilence, and conquistadors to the New World destroying the Inca Empire. The reward was great for these conquistadors. The Inca ruler was captured and Pizarro ransomed the mighty Atahualpa for one room of gold and two rooms of silver – a total ransom worth $50 million dollars.

This was only the beginning for the conquistadors, for they uncovered such wealth that there was nothing in Europe to compare to the magnificence. Looting operations grew so large that ancient Peruvian monuments were divided into claim areas and titles registered. Tons of skillfully crafted objects were smelted and transformed into ingots and shipped to Spain. The House of the Sun was one of those ruins sacked and looted. Doors of wrought gold were lost. The magnificent golden garden with its artificially sown gold corn, stalks and leaves were destroyed and there too, 20 golden llamas with their gold offspring and the watchful gold shepherds with their golden slings and crooks were melted for none to see again. All were destroyed and are now known of only because of the reflections of one conquistador Cieza de Leon in the Chronicle of Peru.

Century, gold discoveries abounded, with the California gold rush leading the pack in 1848, followed by Australians finds in 1851. However, the grandest gold find in history was in 1886 in Witwatersrand Reef in South Africa. These discoveries cumulatively increased the supply of gold, which gave life to a booming jewelry industry. Finally, gold jewelry was available to those with the humblest of budgets. Today the leading producers of gold are South Africa, Russia, Canada, the United States, and Australia.

Gold is not the rarest of minerals. However, a public perception of rarity is an attribute of this popular metal. It is a metal that the public respects because of the admirable history that surrounds it. It is after all one of the earliest forms of currency. And today, as it has been for hundreds of years, it is accepted as a medium of exchange. Gold is the shining star of money.

Most of us desire to own gold and for the majority of us this desire is fulfilled by owning a piece of gold in the form of jewelry. Purchasing something that may turn into a family heirloom can be a delightful experience when you understand what you are looking at, and know the basic terminology used when discussing your selection. When purchasing gold jewelry in different parts of the world the buyer will find some very different terms. In the U.S., it’s sold by the karat and in Europe by its fineness. Karat is a measure of gold purity. Outside the U.S. particularly in British Commonwealth countries is spelled “carat.” (“Carat” is also used in the United States as a weight measurement for gemstones.) Fineness is the amount of gold used in relation to 1,000 parts. For example, pure or 100% gold in the U.S. is 24 karats but in European terms it is expressed as having a fineness of .999. Pure gold or fine gold does not make wearable jewelry because it is extremely soft and easily damaged. Therefore goldsmiths rarely create 24K gold jewelry. To gain greater durability, hardness, and to decrease its cost, pure gold is alloyed or mixed with various precious metals. The most popular gold alloys are 18K and 14K gold, with 18K being the international standard for higher-quality jewelry.

 

To create the more valuable 18K gold or .750 fine 75% pure gold is alloyed with 25% of other metals. Similarly, 14K or .583 fine is created by alloying 58.3% pure gold with 41.67% of other metals. Gold alloys of less than 10 karats are not stamped and cannot be legally sold as karat gold in the United States. However, in Spain, Britain and Canada karat gold is acceptable down to 9K and in Germany down to 8K. In Italy and France gold content must be at least 18K to be called gold.

Another benefit of the alloying process is the creation of beautiful colored gold. Today we see gold in white, red, pink, green, blue, purple, and several shades of yellow. To create white gold, pure gold is alloyed with palladium, platinum, or nickel. A green shade of gold is made by adding various amounts of cadmium, silver, or zinc. Bright yellow gold is created by adding different amounts of fine silver and copper. By adding a large amount of copper to the alloyed yellow gold a reddish pink gold is formed.

Gold jewelry, at times, is sold by its weight expressed by the pennyweight (dwt) or gram (g). In America, jewelers commonly use the pennyweight as their choice. The gram, however, is the most internationally used unit of weight for gold jewelry. The difference in their weight conversions is 1 pennyweight equals 1.555 g or 1 gram equals .643 dwt. When comparison shopping gold jewelry by weight, be certain the same unit of weight is being used. If it is different, remember to convert it so a true comparison can be made.

 What better way to mark the passing of time than with a beautiful piece of gold jewelry that you selected with care and knowledge. As we count the days to the end of this millennium, let us be reminded how cherished this precious metal has been since the beginning of mankind.

“And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads. The name of the first is Pi-son: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Hav-i-lah, where there is gold; And the gold of that land is good.” Genesis 2:10-12