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History and Value of Gold Through Ages

Gold was first discovered and used by ancient Mesopotamians around 2600 BC for jewelry. It became especially valuable to ancient Egyptians, as the tomb of Tutankhamun from 1223 BC contained 100 kg of gold. Gold's value has long been as a symbol of wealth, used for exchange, jewelry and artifacts. While relatively scarce, gold became an international currency starting in 700 BC when the first gold coins were manufactured in Lydia. The Romans further advanced gold mining techniques used by Greeks. Modern hallmarking of precious metals began in 1300 in London, with the UK establishing the original Gold Standard in 1717.

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Rainel Manos
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157 views2 pages

History and Value of Gold Through Ages

Gold was first discovered and used by ancient Mesopotamians around 2600 BC for jewelry. It became especially valuable to ancient Egyptians, as the tomb of Tutankhamun from 1223 BC contained 100 kg of gold. Gold's value has long been as a symbol of wealth, used for exchange, jewelry and artifacts. While relatively scarce, gold became an international currency starting in 700 BC when the first gold coins were manufactured in Lydia. The Romans further advanced gold mining techniques used by Greeks. Modern hallmarking of precious metals began in 1300 in London, with the UK establishing the original Gold Standard in 1717.

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Rainel Manos
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Zindel Kirk Manos Grade VII Gumamela

Gold

Butangig picture

Discovery

Gold was discovered in the ancient times of the Romans, Egyptians, and other early
civilizations, though there is little agreement on when and where humans first came into contact
with gold.

One such date is 2600 B.C., when gold was discovered by the ancient Mesopotamians and
used to create some of the world’s first gold jewelry. A little over a thousand years later, in 1223
B.C., gold was used to construct the tomb of iconic Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun.

Purpose

Since ancient civilization, from the Egyptians to the Inca, gold has held a special place of actual
and symbolic value for humanity.

Gold has moreover been used as money for exchange, as a store of value, and as valuable
jewelry and other artifacts.

Gold's value is ultimately a social construction: it is valuable because we all agree it has been
and will be in the future.

Still, gold's lustrous and metallic qualities, its relative scarcity, and the difficulty of extraction
have only added to the perception of gold as a valuable commodity.

History

Such was the demand that by 2000 BC the Egyptians began mining gold. The death mask of
Tutankhamen, who died in 1323 BC, contained 100 kg of the metal. The royal graves of ancient
Ur (modern Iraq), which flourished from 3800 to 2000 BC, also contained gold objects.

The minting of gold coins began around 640 BC in the Kingdom of Lydia (situated in what is
now modern Turkey) using electrum, a native alloy of gold and silver. The first pure gold coins
were minted in the reign of King Croesus, who ruled from 561–547 BC.

In 700 B.C., the first gold coins were manufactured, setting gold on the path to becoming forever
entwined with the concept of money. By the time 564 B.C. rolled around, Lydian King Croesus
enhanced gold refining techniques and established the very first international gold currency. At
this point, gold was discovered left and right across the Mediterranean and Middle Eastern
regions, prompting Plato and Aristotle to philosophize about gold’s properties and more
practical-minded Greeks to start mining for it. It was so widespread that even today, tourists and
local citizens alike roaming through Grecian ruins can stumble across the remains of some of
those mines!

The Romans then went on to expand the possibilities of gold discovery by building on the
mining technology of the Greeks. Some of the Roman innovations include stream-based gold
mining constructs such as sluices, water wheels, and mining hydraulics.

Approaching modern times, in 1300 the first hallmarking systems for ascertaining and
confirming the quality of precious metals were founded in London. Come 1717, the United
Kingdom established the original Gold Standard, linking 77 shillings to gold at mint price. To
bring us back to James Marshall’s gold discovery, in 1792 U.S. Congress set a bimetallic (gold
and silver) standard for the nation’s freshly minted currency, with a gold value of $19.30 per
ounce.

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