subject: Gold: Most Sought-after Precious Metal [print this page] Of all the form of precious metals, we consider gold is likely the most greatly desirable. From the start of recorded history, gold could have been make use of in a number of works of art, coinage, plus, of course, jewels. Present as grains in rocks and alluvial deposits, gold is shiny, silky, & dense. It is recognized to be the metal most ductile as well as malleable pure.
What makes gold mostly interesting is its bright yellow color and shine. These properties are maintained as gold is chemically unaffected by air otherwise moisture. Here i will discuss some of properties of gold:
General Information on Gold:
Chemical Symbol: Au
Atomic Number: 79
Group (as an element): Transition Metal
Group/ Period/ Block (in the Periodic Table): 11/ 6/ d
The word "gold" was derived from "geolu", an Old English Anglo-Saxon word which implies "yellow". Its symbol "Au", on the other hand, originated with "aurum", the Latin word for "gold". The correct time when gold was firstly discovered can be a topic of dispute. When a few records point for the year 1848 at that time gold was invented in California, history says us that this precious metal was already being used extensively by the traditional Egyptians, Romans, Greeks, Chinese, as well as South Americans.
Throughout the past, gold has used as a measure of value & a representation of the prosperity. Its one of a coinage metals (with silver & copper). Its used, mostly and officially, as a method of cost or even a medium of exchange. Gram & troy weight are the units of the measurement adopted for gold. To denote the quantity of gold present in, say, a piece of jewelry, the word "carat" is used. A necklace, for example, that's 24 carats signifies that it truly is made of pure gold.
When gold's price is determined by investing in derivatives and gold markets, its daily benchmark cost is provided in a procedure known as the London Gold Fix. In this method, the cost of the precious metal is determined every business day on the London market. The fixing is completed two times - once in morning & the other in afternoon. It was actually announced nearly 49 years after the procedure itself was announced, as a means of giving a price at that time US markets are open.
The gold-cost fixing process is completed by the five affiliates of London Gold Market Fixing Ltd., that is The Bank of Nova Scotia, Barclays Capital, Deutsche Bank AG London, HSBC, plus Societe Generale Corporate & Investment Banking.
