| |
History
Of Gold As a Metal |
|
4000
BC |
Gold is
first known to be used in parts of Central and Eastern Europe. |
|
3000 |
The
Egyptians master the arts of beating gold into leaf and alloying gold with
other metals to achieve variations in hardness and color. They also develop
the ability to cast gold, using the lost-wax technique still used in today's
jewelry industry.
The Sumer civilization of southern Iraq uses gold to creat a wide range of
jewelry, often using sophisticated and varied styles still worn today. |
|
2500 |
Gold
jewelry is buried in the Tomb of Djer, the king of the First Egyptian
Dyanisty, at Abydos, Egypt. |
|
1500 |
The
immense, gold-bearing regions of Nubia make Egypt a wealthy nation, as gold
becomes the recognized standard medium of exchange for international trade.
The Shekel, a coin originally weighing 11.3 grams of gold, is used as a
standard unit of measure throughout the Middle East. The coin contained a
naturally occurring alloy called electrum, which was approximately
two-thirds gold and one-third silver. |
|
1352 |
The young
Egyptian King Tutankhamun is interred in a pyramid tomb laden with gold, his
remains laid in an extravagant gold anthropoid sarcophagus. |
|
1350 |
The
Babylonians begin to use fire assay to test the purity of gold. |
|
1091 |
Squares
of gold are legalized in China as a form of money. |
|
560 |
The first
coins made purely from gold are minted in Lydia, a kingdom of Asia Minor. |
|
58 |
Julius
Caesar seizes enough gold in Gaul (France) to repay Rome's debts. |
|
50 |
The
Romans issue a gold coin called the Aureus. |
|
600-699 AD |
The
Byzantine Empire resumes gold mining in central Europe and France, an area
undeveloped since the fall of the Roman Empire. Artisans of the period
produce intricate gold artifacts and icons. |
|
1100 |
Venice
secures its position as the world's leading gold bullion market due to its
location astride the trade routes to the east. |
|
1284 |
Venice
introduces the gold Ducat, which soon becomes the most popular coin in the
world, and remains so for more than five centuries.
Great Britain issues its first major gold coin, the Florin, which is
followed by the Noble, the Angel, the Crown, and the Guinea. |
|
1511 |
King
Ferdinand of Spain sends explorers to the Western Hemisphere with the
command to "get gold." |
|
1717 |
Isaac
Newton, Master of the London Mint, sets price of gold that lasts for 200
years. |
|
1787 |
First US
gold coin is struck by Ephraim Brasher, a goldsmith. |
|
1792 |
The
Coinage Act places the young United Sates on a bimetallic silver/gold
standard, defining the U.S. Dollar as equivalent to 24.75 grains of fine
gold, and 371.25 grains of fine silver. |
|
1803 |
North
Carolina site of first US gold rush. The state supplies all the domestic
gold coined for currency by the US Mint in Philadelphia until 1828. |
|
1848 |
The
California gold rush begins when James Marshall finds specks of gold in the
water at John Sutter's sawmill near the junction of the American and
Sacramento Rivers. |
|
1850 |
Edward
Hammong Hargraves, returning from California, predicts he will find gold in
Australia within one week. He discovers gold in New South Wales within one
week of landing. |
|
1859 |
The
Comstock Lode of gold and silver is discovered in Nevada. As a result,
Nevada is made a state five years later. |
|
1886 |
George
Harrison, while digging stones to build a house, discovers gold in South
Africa. |
|
1887 |
Glasgow
doctors, Robert and William Forrest, and chemist John S. MacArthur patent
the process for extracting gold from ore using cyanide. |
|
1896 |
Two
prospectors discover gold while fishing in the Klondike River in northern
Canada, richer finds were rumored farther south in Alaska's Yukon, spawning
the Alaska Gold Rush in 1898 -- the last gold rush of the century.
|
|
1900 |
US adopts
the gold standard for its currency. |
|
1903 |
The
Engelhard Corporation introduces an organic medium to print gold on
surfaces. First used for decoration, the medium becomes the foundation for
microcircuit printing technology. |
|
1922 |
King
Tutankhamun's tomb (1352 BC) opened to reveal a 2,448 lb. gold coffin and
hundreds of gold and gold-leafed objects (including the mask pictured at the
beginning of this section). |
|
1927 |
A Medical
study in France proves gold to be valuable in treatment of Rheumatoid
arthritis. |
|
1933 |
President
Franklin D. Roosevelt bans the export of gold, halts the convertibility of
dollar bills into gold, orders US citizens to hand in all the gold they
possess and establishes a daily price for gold. |
|
1934 |
Roosevelt
fixes price of gold at $35 per ounce. |
|
1935 |
Western
Electric Alloy #1 (69% gold, 25% silver and 6% platinum) finds universal use
in all switching contacts for AT&T telecommunications equipment. |
|
1944 |
The
Bretton Woods agreement sets an international gold exchange standard and
creates two new international organizations, the International Monetary Fund
(IMF) and the World Band. The new standard sets par values for currencies in
terms of gold and obligates member countries to convert foreign offical
holdings of their currencies into gold at these par values. |
|
1947 |
The first
transistor, the building block for electronics, is assembled at AT&T Bell
Laboratories. The device uses gold contacts pressed into a germanium
surface. |
|
1960 |
The laser
is invented using gold-coated mirrors to maximize infrared reflection. |
|
1961 |
Modern-day mining begins in Nevada's Carlin Trend, ultimately making Nevada
the nation's largest gold-mining state. |
|
1968 |
Intel
introduces a microchip with 1,024 transistors connected by gold circuits.
On March 15, central banks give up fixed price of gold at $35 per troy ounce
and let it free float. |
|
1969 |
Gold
coated visors protect the astronauts' eyes from searing sunlight on the moon
(Apollo 11 moon landing). |
|
1970 |
The
charged coupled device is invented, using gold to collect electrons
generated by light, eventually used in hundreds of military and civilian
devices, including video cameras. |
|
1971 |
The
colloidal gold marker system is introduced by Amersham Corporation of
Illinois. Tiny spheres of gold are used in health research laboratories
worldwide to mark or tag specific proteins to reveal their function in the
human body for the treatment of disease. |
|
1973 |
The U.S.
Dollar is removed from gold standard, and gold prices are allowed to float
free. By June, the market for gold in London reaches more than $120 per
ounce. |
|
1974 |
On
December 31, US government ends its ban on individual ownership of gold. |
|
1976 |
The Gold
Institute is established in Washington, D.C., to promote the common
interests of the gold industry by providing statistical data and other
relevant information to its members, the media, government, and the public.
|
|
1980 |
Gold
reaches intra-day historic high price of $870 on January 21 in New York. |
|
1986 |
Gold-coated compact discs are introduced. |
|
1987 |
Airbags
are introduced for cars, using gold contacts for reliability. |
|
1996 |
The Mars
Global Surveyor is launched with an on-board gold-coated parabolic
telescope-mirror that will generate a detailed map of the entire Martian
surface over a two-year period. |
|
1997 |
Congress
passes Taxpayers Relief Act, allowing US Individual Retirement Account
holders to buy gold bullion coins and bars for their accounts as long as
they are of a fineness equal to, or exceeding, 99.5 percent gold. |
|
1999 |
The Euro,
a pan-European currency, is introduced, backed by a new European Central
Bank holding 15 percent of its reserves in gold. |
|
2000 |
Astronomers at the Keck Observatory in Hawaii use the giant gold-coated
mirrors of the observatory's twin telescopes to produce the most detailed
images of Neptune and Uranus ever captured. |
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