Gold History

Gold was used by prehistoric civilizations as a tool. Highly sophisticated gold art objects and jewelry discovered by archaeologists in the Royal Tombs of Ur, in which is now Southern Iraq, date back to around 3000 BC. Similarly, goldsmiths of the Chavin civilization in Peru were making ornaments by hammering and embossing gold by 1200 BC.

Important Dates in the History of Gold

4000 BC

Gold first known to be used in parts of central and Eastern Europe.

3000 BC

Egyptians master the art of beating gold into gold left and alloying it with other metals.

1500 BC

The Shekel (two-thirds gold) used as a standard unit of measure through the Middle East.

1091 BC

Squares of gold are legalized in China as a form of money.

58 BC

Julius Caesar seizes enough gold in Gaul (France) to repay Rome's debts.

1100 AD

Venice secures its position as the world’s leading gold bullion market due to its location astride the trade routes to the east.

1511

King Ferdinand of Spain sends explorers to the Western Hemisphere with the command to "get gold."

1717

Isaac Newton, Master of the London Mint, sets price of gold that lasts for 200 years.

1787

First US gold coin is struck by Ephraim Brasher, a goldsmith.

1803

North Carolina site of first US gold rush. The state supplies all the domestic gold coined for currency by the US Mint in Philadelphia until 1828.

1848

California gold rush begins when James Marshall finds specks of gold in tailrace of John Sutter's sawmill near the junction of the American and Sacramento Rivers.

1850

Edward Hammong Hargraves, returning from California, predicts he will find gold in Australian within one week. He discovers gold in New South Wales within one week of landing.

1886

George Harrison, while digging stones to build a house, discovers gold in South Africa.

1887

Glasgow doctors, Robert and Wiliam Forrest, and chemist John S. MacArthur, patent the process for extracting gold from ore using cyanide.

1896

Two prospectors discover gold while fishing in the Klondike River in northern Canada. Richer finds were rumored farther south in Alaska's Yukon, spawning the Alaska Gold Rush in 1898 - the last gold rush of the century.

1900

US adopts the gold standard for its currency.

1903

The Engelhard Corporation introduces an organic medium to print gold on surfaces. First used in decoration, the medium becomes the foundation of microcircuit printing technology.

1922

King Tutankhamen.s tomb (1352 BC) opened to reveal a 2,448 lb. Gold coffin and hundreds of gold and gold-leafed objects.

1927

Medical study in France proves gold to be valuable in treatment of rheumatoid arthritis.

1933

Present Franklin D. Roosevelt bands the export of gold, halts the convertibility of dollar bills into gold, orders US citizens to hand in all the gold they possess and establishes a daily price for gold.

1934

Roosevelt fixes price of gold at $35 per ounce.

1935

Western Electric Alloy #1 (69% gold, 25% silver and 6% platinum) finds universal use in all switching contacts for ATT telecommunications equipment.

1947

The first transistor, the building block for electronics, is assembled at AT&T; Bell Laboratories. The device uses gold contacts pressed into a germanium surface.

1960

Laser invented using gold-coated mirrors to maximize infrared reflection.

1961

Modern-day mining begins in Nevada's Carlin Trend, ultimately making Nevada the nation's largest gold-mining state.

1968

Intel introduces a microchip with 1,024 transistors connected by gold circuits. On March 15, central banks give up fixed price of gold at $35 per troy ounce and let it free float.

1969

Gold coated visors protect astronauts' eyes from searing sunlight on the moon (Apollo 11 moon landing).

1970

Charged coupled device invented, using gold to collect electrons generated by light, eventually used in hundreds of military and civilian devices, including video cameras.

1971

The colloidal gold marker system is introduced by Amersham Corporation of Illinois Tiny spheres of gold are used in health research laboratories worldwide to mark or tag specific proteins to reveal their function in the human body for the treatment of disease.

1974

On December 31, US government ends its ban on individual ownership of gold.

1980

Gold reaches intra-day historic high price of $870 on January 21 in New York.

1986

Gold-coated compact discs are introduced.

1987

Airbags are introduced for cars, using gold contacts for reliability.

1996

Mars Global Surveyor launched with an on-board gold-coated parabolic telescope-mirror that will generated a detailed map of the entire Martian surface over a two-year period.

1997

Congress passes Taxpayers Relief Act, allowing US Individual Retirement Account holders to buy gold bullion coins and bars for their accounts as long as they are of a fineness equal to, or exceeding, 99.5 percent gold.