Interesting Facts about Gold

Gold is so ductile that an ounce of gold can be stretched to a length of over fifty miles or beaten into a sheet to cover a hundred square feet.

A cubic foot of gold weighs approximately half a ton.

Gold can be made into thread and used in embroidery.

The word gold derives from the Old English word 'gelo' meaning yellow.

Precious metals are measured in troy ounces. This comes from the French town of Troyes where this unit of measurement was first used. A troy ounce is approximately 10% heavier than an avoirdupois ounce.

A carat was originally a unit of mass based on the carob seed used by ancient merchants.

Gold bars were made as early as 4000 BC.

Since the 1880s South Africa has been the source for a large proportion of the world's gold supply. Production in 1970 accounted for 79% of the world supply, producing about 1,000 tonnes, however production in 2004 was 342 tonnes. This decline was due to the increasing difficulty of extraction and changing economic factors effecting the industry in South Africa.

A single gram of gold can be beaten into a sheet of one square metre, or an ounce into 100 square feet.

During the 19th century, gold rushes occurred whenever large gold deposits were discovered, including the California, Colorado, Otago, Australia, Witwatersrand, Black Hills, and Klondike gold rushes. Because of its historically high value, much of the gold mined throughout history is still in circulation in one form or another.

75% of all gold ever produced has been extracted since 1910. It has been estimated that all the gold in the world that has ever been refined would form a single cube 20 m (66 ft) a side.

The price of gold is fixed twice a day at 10.30 am and 3.00 pm at the premises of N M Rothschild by the five main Bullion Houses - Deutsche Bank, HSBC, NM Rothschild, ScotiaMocatta and Societe Generale. The first gold fix was on 12th September, 1919 and this tradition has continued in order to provide a publically quoted price as a benchmark to be used by producers and consumers. The Chairman, traditionally a representative of N M Rothschild, announces an opening price and the other members, who are connected to their dealing rooms, declare themselves to be buyers or sellers of a number of bars at that price. Each representative has a small flag on his desk and this is raised at a change of orders from his dealing room. If any flag is raised, the price may not be fixed. The price is moved until an optimum price is achieved to satisfy both buyers and sellers. Once the total buy and sell amounts from each dealing room are within 25 bars of each other, the gold price can be fixed. Immediately the price is fixed it starts moving again on the market.

Legend has it, that the method of raising flags to fix the price of gold began in the following way. There was a man named Amshel who collected coins and lived in the ghettos of Frankfurt in the late 1700’s. Owing to his specialised knowledge, Amshel became the seeker of old coins for William IX of Hesse-Kassel. In 1805, impressed with the financial insight of Amshel’s son, Nathan, William IX entrusted him with a large portion of his wealth. Rather than buying and selling coins as his father had done, Nathan decided to buy and sell gold bullion. Nathan allegedly commented that the only two people who understood the true value of gold were one of the directors of the Bank of England and an obscure clerk in the vault of the Banque de Paris and unfortunately they disagreed! Soon Nathan was receiving advance information from France through a series of carefully arranged flag signals from across the Channel. As he was receiving his information much more quickly than other traders, he soon amassed a great fortune and a few years later he was dubbed a Baron by Francis I of Austria. That is why representatives from each of the five major bullion houses meet twice a day to raise and lower flags, as they fix the price of gold. This takes place at the offices of NM Rothschild, which was founded by Baron Nathan Mayer de Rothschild.