Gold has often been called the King of Metals. Its chemical symbol is AU. To some that might strike a familiar note, possibly harking back to Auric Goldfinger, of James Bond fame. Of all the precious metals, it is probably the one most sought after. It has and is being used as money, jewelry, electronics, a hedge against inflation or deflation, dentistry, the basis for a monetary standard by the International Monetary Fund and the Bank for International Settlements. In the United States, our largest gold reserve is located in Fort Knox, Ky. and is protected by more than a division of soldiers because it is also the home of the U.S. Army’s Armor Center, which trains soldiers and Marines whose mission is armor related. Gold is known as a metallic element with a usually accepted yellow color. It can also be found in black or ruby. Gold is not affected by most chemicals and resists age and ultraviolet degradation. The first ruby or ruby flashed glass was made with gold, which is the reason it is so rare and expensive. Finished gold can be made in many colors by the addition of certain metals to achieve a particular shade – white, pink, green, yellow, antique – and variations of the aforementioned. A particular type of gold was made in the black hills of the Dakotas. Gold was discovered there in 1874. It was the last great gold discovery in the continental United States. The manufacture of a particular type of jewelry commenced, which consisted of grape leaves and vines in three colors of gold (pink, green and yellow). It was and is very popular even today. The three colors do not naturally occur there, but were achieved by mixing different metals with gold. Today Black Hills Gold is made only in the black hills, by the ruling of a federal judge. His ruling was that in order to be called Black Hills Gold it had to be manufactured there. The designation for pure gold is 24 karat. This is too soft and the gold is alloyed with other metals to give it more resistance to wear and to alter the color. To figure the value of the gold jewelry you must weigh it and check to see the karat count. You can then calculate the value by looking up (daily paper) the price of gold (24 karat), dividing this by the karat value of the piece and multiplying the price by the fraction achieved. The value would be slightly higher to cover the manufacturing costs of the alloy and value of the base metal. Most gold jewelry is 8, 9, 14 or 18 karats. Rarely is 24 karat found, since it is too soft. Some people, due to body chemistry, will show a black mark wherever gold of 14 karats or less touches the body. Egyptians, Incas, Mayans, and Aztecs prized gold very highly and made extensive use of it in jewelry, masks, funerary trappings and temple decorations or almost anywhere or anything that might be enhanced by the addition of the revered metal. Since most gold is recycled one can only speculate as to what treasures of antiquity make up parts of the jewelry and other gold items we possess. Bob Becker is a resident of Richfield Springs.
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