Gold has been known for at least 5500 years. Over these years, it has grown in popularity immensely. Gold gets its name from both the Sanskrit word jval and the Anglo-Saxon word gold. Both of these mean gold as in the color. The elemental symbol of Au comes from the Latin word aurum which means gold also.

              Gold can be found, very rarely, free in nature, but when it is found, it is usually paired with other metals such as silver, quartz, and copper.

Gold is also the world’s most malleable and ductile metal. It is also extremely conductive of electricity. If one ounce of gold was hammered by a blacksmith, it would be able to be spread out to be five meters on each side. Gold leafing has been very popular ever since the ancient Greek ages. Gold leafing is the process of hammering out the gold until it is extremely thin. After it has reached its maximum thinness, it can be bent and pasted to ceilings to create beautiful art work. Some gold leaves have been known to be as thin as 0.000127 millimeters. That is 400 times more thin than a human hair!!

Gold’s most meaningful form is in jewelry and currency. Gold jewelry has become the world’s most popular jewelry. It also shows a status of wealth to some people.