10 Interesting Facts About Gold

Written by Jill Bibby Pease & Curren

To keep things light since it is vacation season, we decided to write something a little different for this week's blog.

Some interesting facts about our favorite precious metal:

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Facts about GOLD :
1. Production: China is currently ranked #1 for gold output worldwide, Russia is #2.
2. Absolutely pure gold is so soft that it can be molded with your hands.
3. Gold is very rare when compared with diamonds
4. The word "Gold" is derived from the olde English word Gelo meaning yellow.

5.  Very few chemicals can attack gold; that is why it retains it's shine.

6.  Due to a similar appearance to gold, the mineral pyrite has the nickname "fool's gold".

• Hint...Use a magnifying glass- Pyrite has hard edges, gold has softer edges. 

7. 75% of all gold ever produced has been extracted since 1910, much of the gold mined throughout history is still in circulation in one form or another.
8. Approximately a total of eighty-thousand tons of gold has been extracted from earth so far.  This means all of the gold that has been dug up in history would, if melted, make a cube measuring approximately 82 x 82 x 82 feet.
9. The largest gold nugget ever found weighed approximately 198 lbs. or 90 kg. and was unearthed in Australia. 
10. Pure gold never oxidizes.