Pictured above is the world’s largest gold bar, at 250 kilograms. It sits in the Toi museum in Japan, where it is closely guarded day and night.
Gold in its purest form is rare indeed. If you’ve ever seen videos of gold as it is mined from the ground, a “gold nugget” will actually contain large amounts of granite, which are later dissolved away, yet the gold itself is often mixed with copper, silver and palladium. This is where gold gets its karat rating from. Historically, 22k, 18k, 14k and 10k pieces of gold contain high amounts of copper and other base metals. The more copper that is mixed with your gold, the more of a reddish color it will have. Pure gold is very hard to come by because it is very difficult to purify. For gold enthusiasts, the purity of a given piece of gold is immediately noticeable because it will shine bright yellow, a hue which enthusiasts can only describe as “gold”.
Even some of the most expensive gold jewelry is estimated to contain up to 25% copper. Even solid gold jewelry that is 10k, 12k, 14k and 18k are known to tarnish, yet pure gold, as a chemical element, will never rust or show any signs of decay. Modern day items which are encased in a plate of gold are made as such so that they do not rust or show any signs of wear, although the amount of gold used to make thin gold plates is often minimal.
As we can see, gold is a rare substance indeed. Unless you’re waiting for another asteroid full of gold to hit Earth, the best time to start investing in gold is right this second. The consumption of gold as a safe haven is also higher than it’s ever been. According to the World Gold Council, investors spent over $24 billion on gold in 2014, and that number has since increased to the point where gold is now sold to investors before it is even mined from the ground.
Another popular investment for gold enthusiasts are gold coins minted and used as currency for hundreds of years. Although no longer accepted as currency in day-to-day transactions, these gold coins serve as a valuable collector’s item and valuable piece of history worth thousands of dollars.
Yet the modern world has recently seen a new forms of gold-based currencies spring up. As these are constantly changing, we decided to keep them current on the website so they would not be outdated in print here.