Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from its Latin name Aurum) and
Atomic Number 79 .
It is a highly sought-after precious metal which has been used as money, a store of value and in jewelery since the beginning of recorded history. The metal occurs as nuggets or grains in rocks, underground "veins" and in alluvial deposits. It is one of the coinage metals. Gold is dense, soft, shiny and the most malleable and ductile substance known. Pure gold has a bright yellow color traditionally considered attractive. Gold formed the basis for the gold standard used before the collapse of the Bretton Woods system. The ISO currency code of gold bullion is XAU.
The usual benchmark for the price of gold is known as the London Gold Fixing, a twice-daily (telephone) meeting of representatives from five bullion-trading firms.
Furthermore, there is active gold trading based on the intra-day spot price, derived from gold-trading markets around the world as they open and close throughout the day.
Investing in gold...
The most traditional way of investing in gold is by buying bullion gold bars. Bars are available in various sizes, for example in Europe these would typically be in 12.5kg or 1kg bars (1kg = 32.15072 Troy ounces.
Buying gold coins is a popular way of holding gold. Typically bullion coins are priced according to their weight, with little or no premium above the gold price.
Certificates
A certificate of ownership can be held by gold investors, instead of storing the actual gold bullion. Gold certificates allow investors to buy and sell the security without the inconvenience associated with the transfer of actual physical gold.
The Perth Mint Certificate Program (PMCP) is the only government guaranteed gold certificate program in the world. The program offers investors the ability to store gold, silver and or platinum in an unallocated account free of any storage costs.
Most Swiss banks offer gold accounts where gold can be instantly bought or sold just like any foreign currency. Digital gold currency accounts and the BullionVault gold exchange work on a similar principle. GoldMoney is a popular digital gold currency provider, who has been in business since 2001.
Gold exchange-traded funds (or GETFs) are traded like shares on the major stock exchanges including London, New York and Sydney. The first gold ETF, Gold Bullion Securities (ticker symbol "GOLD"), was launched in March 2003 on the Australian Stock Exchange, and originally represented exactly one-tenth of an ounce of gold.
Firms such as Cantor Index and IG Index, both from the UK, offer the ability to take a bet on the price of gold through what is known as a spread bet.
Derivatives, such as gold forwards, futures and options, currently trade on various exchanges around the world and over-the-counter (OTC) directly in the private market. In the U.S., gold futures are primarily traded on the New York Commodities Exchange (COMEX).
These do not represent gold at all, but rather are shares in gold mining companies. If the gold price rises, the profits of the gold mining company could be expected to rise and as a result the share price may rise. However, there are many factors to take into account and it is not always the case that a share price will rise when the gold price increases.
Today, like all investments and commodities, the price of gold is ultimately driven by supply and demand, including hoarding and disposal.
Unlike most other commodities, the hoarding and disposal plays a much bigger role in affecting the price, because most of the gold ever mined still exists and is potentially able to come on to the market for the right price.
Given the huge quantity of hoarded gold, compared to the annual production, the price of gold is mainly affected by changes in sentiment, rather than changes in annual production.
According to the World Gold Council, annual mine production of gold over the last few years has been close to 2,500 tonnes.
About 3,000 tonnes goes into jewelry or industrial/dental production,
and around 500 tonnes goes to retail investors and exchange traded gold funds. This translates to an annual demand for gold to be 1000 tonnes in excess over mine production which has come from central bank sales and other disposal.
Central banks and the International Monetary Fund play an important role in the gold price. At the end of 2004 central banks and official organizations held 19 percent of all above-ground gold as official gold reserves.
The Washington Agreement on Gold (WAG), which dates from September 1999, limits gold sales by its members (Europe, United States, Japan, Australia, Bank for International Settlements and the International Monetary Fund) to less than 400 tonnes a year.
European central banks, such as the Bank of England and Swiss National Bank, have been key sellers of gold over this period
Authenticity.
There is an age-old tradition of biting gold in order to test its authenticity.
Although this is certainly not a professional way of examining gold, the bite test should score the gold because gold is considered a soft metal according to the Mohs' scale of mineral hardness.
The purer the gold the easier it should be to mark it.
Painted lead can cheat this test because lead is softer than gold (and may invite a small risk of lead poisoning if sufficient lead is absorbed by the biting).
_curious facts________________________
The word "money" is believed to originate from a temple of Hera, located on Capitoline, one of Rome's seven hills. In the ancient world Hera was often associated with money. The temple of Juno Moneta at Rome was the place where the mint of Ancient Rome was located.
"Juno" etymology may derives from the Etruscan goddess Uni (which means "the one", "unique", "unit", "union", "united") and "Moneta" either from the Latin word "monere" (remind, warn, or instruct) or the Greek word "moneres" (alone, unique).
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Mine production of gold in 2007 - list of countries
Rank by sovereign state
Country/Region
Gold production (kilograms) per Year
2,310,000
UNDERSTAND THE 79
The periodic table is a list of all of the atoms in the universe that have different numbers of electrons.
helium has two…
carbon has six
ooxygen … eight
gold has 79
and uranium has 92
Today we know that it is the arrangement of electrons inside each atom that
determine its chemical properties. And similar arrangements lead to similar
properties.
There are two kinds
of quarks (physicists call them flavors of quarks) that are found in normal matter.
These quarks are the UP quark and the DOWN quark.
A proton is formed from two up quarks and one down quark while its slightly
heavier cousin, the neutron, is formed from two down quarks and one up quark.
210 Nucleus
These protons and neutrons can then combine to form the nucleus of each
element in the periodic table.
One proton in the nucleus makes hydrogen
2 form helium
6 … carbon
8 … oxygen
79 is gold and
92 … uranium
Neutrons help hold the protons together. Because of their electric charge,
protons would repel each other more strongly if neutrons were not present, and
the heavier elements would come apart.
There are approximately as many
neutrons in each element as there are protons.
220 ElectronShells
Atoms are formed when the positively charged protons in the nucleus capture
negative electrons. Neutral atoms have captured one negative electron for each
positive proton in the nucleus…so…
Hydrogen has one electron to go with its one proton
Helium … 2 electrons
Carbon has 6
Oxygen … 8
Gold has 79
And Uranium … 92
There are nearly 90 stable elements. The largest of them can contain close to
800 fundamental particles, joined in a complex but stable structure.
But electrons cannot just gather around in a crowd. The strange, wonderful
world of the tiny has some quantum idiosyncrasies. Electrons arrange
themselves in shells inside an atom like the layers of an onion…and only 2
electrons can fit per layer. So, the more electrons an atom has, the further away
from the nucleus the outer shells must be…and that means these electrons are
more loosely held.
It is this difference in how tightly electrons are held in each different kind of atom
that determines the chemical properties of that element. This accounts for the
ability of metals to conduct electricity, the aloofness of noble gases, and the
formation of molecules.
230 Molecules
It turns out that protons in two or more different nuclei can sometimes capture
(and fight over) the same electron. And when that happens, atoms of different
elements are joined together to form molecules.
This oxygen molecule is sharing two of its electrons with two hydrogen atoms –
this is how a water molecule is formed.
text above, courtesy of the Cassiopeia Project
