Gold

[top]Gold in Birthright

Gold, the metal of kings. Gold the prize over which men fight and nations go to war. Gold, the oil that greases the wheel of commerce. Gold is synonymous with wealth in many areas, valued as jewellery or for use in coinage. This page gives a brief over-view on the metal, where it may be found and how it may be used.

[top]History

Gold is easy to work and has a low melting point making it easy to refine, this makes it available to even primitive cultures.
Gold is typically valuable due to its beauty and use in making jewelery in addition to perceived mystic properties. Although gold is very rare its resistance to corrosion, etc and value means that little gold is lost in the manner of other metals - gold is hidden but not simply discarded.

[top]Use

Gold does not tarnish - indeed resists the majority of acids - add to that an attractive color rare in metals and the capability to be used in extremely fine jewelry and the reason for golds popularity is apparent. This popularity and the rarity of the metal in turn makes it valuable.
Most gold jewelry has other metals added to make the jewelry harder, coins frequently have a relatively low gold content - particularly in more corrupt cultures.
A very dense metal gold is soft and extremely malleable - gold leaf is a term applied to the metal when beaten to a far finer width than a sheet of paper, in this form the gold is typically used to coat another metal or gild a statue.
Gold may be used in primitive dentistry as it is both malleable (meaning it is easily shaped to fit the tooth) and does not corrode / poison the wearer or flavor food.
Gold may be made into thread for embroidery, fine cloth, or stain glass (giving it a deep red hue) and in some decadent areas gold leaf or dust may be used to garnish foods (which does nothing for flavor but wonders to the price)

[top]Types of Gold

In addition to the pure yellow metal, gold can be alloyed with copper to make 'red' gold, with silver to make electrum or 'green' gold, alloyed with iron gold can take a blue color, and aluminum can be used to make purple gold. Nickel can be used to make 'white' gold however it is mildly toxic.

[top]Mystical properties

Gold is often believed to have healing properties, or to protect the wearer from illness or poison (as gold is resistant to all corruption). These beliefs tend to arise from the fact that gold is attractive and does not tarnish over time making it a symbol of purity, endurance, imperviousness, etc.

[top]Finding gold

Gold can be panned from alluvial deposits in rivers and streams, found in surface nuggets, or dug from veins of ore beneath ground via mining operations.
Gold is found most commonly in the following types of rock:

• Silty-sandy carbonate sediments caused by gold washed downstream pooling in sediments where the water slows down.
  
• Volcanic complexes caused by the gold pooling at the bottom of molten rock formations, being melted from amongst stronger rock, to seep into hollows in the rock, etc.
  
• In igneous rocks with copper, iron, lead or tin around granite forming at depths of 2 to 2.5 km. These rock formations may contain rich ore veins of gold, copper, lead, and tin. Over time erosion may lead to these rocks being near to or on the surface.
  
• Greenstone Gold Quartz Vein Deposits. Found in metamorphosed deep sea sediments, Gold is
  

associated with quartz veinlets distributed through distinct horizons in the iron formation.
This page was originally based on articles from Wikipedia and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.