A History of Gold and Silver

he following story is based on the historical outline by The National Mining Association

What is it about gold that when it was first found in the area of Eastern Europe, 4000 BC., a human being decided to pick it up? Long before it had become one of the most desired materials known to practically every culture around the world, something made the first person decide to reach down with their hand and collect it.

Perhaps it was the shine, color or shape. It might have been smooth or part of another mineral that had to be separated. This person could not have had any idea of the effect gold would have on humanity. They had no clue that men would work to find and purify this metal, or that they would collect large amounts of it and die to protect it as well as launch campaigns of war to get it from another group of people. They had no idea that some of the most beautiful art work ever made would be covered with this substance they now held in their hand.

It was the people in the area of the Transylvanian Alps or around Mount Pangaion in Thrace who first mined it and began to use it for decorative purposes. Being a decoration, it was appreciated probably because of it’s color and shine. It is so different from the plain dirt of the earth in color and texture. It is not like rocks, even the colorful ones because of it’s malleability. Gold shines even when it is not wet. It is not like some other metals in that it does not rust or change appearance. It seemed to be the perfect material for decorative purposes and indeed may have inspired the idea of decoration in the first place.

~~~~~~

After initial uses of gold had evolved, it’s decorative purpose began to have a more refined appearance. Maybe a man had the idea to create something that his wife would have liked or perhaps, his wife designed it herself and suggested it to her husband. This was not written down on the clay tablets used at the time, but rare examples of their work is found in museums around the world.

A sense of highly refined adornment was apparently the reason that the middle eastern mind of the people of the Sumer civilization in Southern Iraq, circa 3000 BC., began to make jewelry. They developed a skill and sophistication of design that is still in use today. Consider the repeating designs use in their modern architecture or carpets and how the designs loop through each other. Notice how the designs have balance and elegance.

Now, consider the elegance of a repeating loop of gold which creates a chain necklace. It is able to fall along the shape of a womans neckline, colar bone and chest. A solid wire of gold would not be able to do this, but the interlocking loops of gold allows the chain to move with the grace of the body and lay against the form. It also allows for movement when the body is in action. The beauty of gold against olive skin may be one reason to think that the idea came from the mind of a man, but no one knows for sure.

A sense of engineering and creativity had to be part of the puzzle in Iraq. There was a basic ability that was developed which is part of the beauty. The engineering of the chain allowed for the movement of the already malleable gold. It was adding another step to the dance that kept on developing as other people began to use gold and develop their own reasons and explanations for it’s being a part of creation.

~~~~~~~

When the Kings of Egypt began to utilize gold jewelry and take it with them to their graves, a new effect came into being. They had their belief in the afterlife and all that was needed for that, but it also left a picture of their culture and beliefs preserved in their art, which was rediscovered in relatively modern times.

In 2500 BC., Egyptian King Djer, of the first Egyptian Dynasty, had his gold jewelry buried with him in his tomb at Abydos, Egypt. He might have been the first, but was certainly not the last or most notable. The artifacts from the tomb of King Tut have traveled around to the worlds greatest museums. Millions of people have seen the golden treasures especially the gold canopic coffinette.

Storing gold in tombs may have seemed like the thing to do at one time, but as more value was given to gold, things changed. The graves of the Kings were plundered in the centuries after their burial, but some survived in tack, until the 1800′s, when research begins by European archeologist. We don’t want to call this “research” plundering, or do we? Lets say that it’s not plundering in the classical sense. At least the art work is not being melted down and sold in a pawn shop. It is on display in museums around the world.

Perhaps they didn’t find all the hidden rooms in the pyramids. There could be vast quantities of golden artifacts still waiting to be discovered. These rooms are still hiding from anyone who wants to gain entry. The builders made it more difficult to get to the valuable contents Who knows what is yet to be discovered in the hidden vaults of the pyramids? I’d be careful just in case the pyramids were designed to come crashing down on anyone who moves a certain stone which could be a door to the real vault.

~~~~~~~

Around 1500 B. C. Egypt became very wealthy in gold coming from Nubia. During this time, gold was becoming the medium of exchange among the nations of the middle east. The Shekel coin had a weight of 11.3 grams which was a standard weight. It was made of two thirds gold and one third silver.

After hundreds of years trading everything from goats and beans, to knives and hardware, a standard item that was acceptable to everyone had emerged. This item was gold. It was bound to happen that one thing would be so universally accepted so as to become money. They didn’t have mirrors at the time. Perhaps gold gave them a nice reflection of themselves?

No doubt, once it became the currency, it’s prestige rose unlike any other material. At one time, a man might have been judged rich by the amount of land or cattle he had. Perhaps it was the amount of power he had over others. All of this was changing in a way that was obviously more organized in spite of the pitfalls that were to follow.

~~~~~~

After the establishment of gold as money, there must have been a haphazard way of determining the value of a piece of material that may or may not be pure gold. This inconsistency allowed the purchaser to get more goods or services while using less actual gold since one could not see inside of a rock with a vein of gold. Sometimes it must have worked in favor of the seller as well.

In it’s natural form, gold might be in a solid nugget. It could be a vein in quartz or rock. If other materials were still mixed with the gold, the weight of the gold could not be accurately determined. It would have to be separated from other natural materials before it could be considered pure and be given an exact monetary value.

In 1350 BC, the Babylonians began to use fire assay to establish a test to purify gold. They could pronounce a certain purity of the gold. This gave more confidence in the use of gold as currency and no doubt helped build a trust in Babylonian gold as opposed to other regions where it might still have been mixed with other materials.

~~~~~~~

Gold has a softness that is unique among metals. It can be hammered down to very thin layers without splitting. It can then be used as a layer over wood, other metals or materials so that less gold is needed to cover the area in view. So instead of having a box of solid gold, it can be made of wood and covered with gold leaf, a very thin layer. The box will then look like solid gold.

In 1200 B.C., the Egyptians began beating gold into a thin layer. They also alloyed it with other metals some of which were harder. Mixing with other metals might change the color of the gold as well. The mixing of one metal with gold might give it more durability. Pure gold is soft and can be manipulated or scratched easily so adding other metals to give it more durability could serve a specific purpose depending on the intended use.

The Egyptians proved to be very creative and developed the lost wax method of jewelry making. This is done by carving the desired jewelry shape in wax, covering it in clay and heating it so that the wax is melted. The wax flows out of a small hole in the clay. As the wax leaves, the shape is ready for the melted gold to be poured into the mold created by the wax design. Once the gold is cooled and hardened, the clay mold is broken away from the gold jewelry formed by the lost wax.

~~~~~~~

Also around 1200 B.C., gold dust was recovered by people living on the eastern shores of the Black Sea. This natural shape of gold deposit is very small, sometimes as small as grains of sand and has to be recovered very carefully.

How the use of sheepskin came into use is unknown. After careful observation, they noticed that gold was heavier than the sand and therefore fell deeper into the wool, than sand. It could have been that someone dropped a skin in the water, which passed over it making deposits of gold. Later, someone found the skin, picked it up and after drying, noticed that there was gold embedded in the wool.

The use of sheepskin was deployed here by slucing the sands through the wool, which after drying are shaken to dislodge the gold dust. This worked well because the weight of the gold is heavier than the sand it was found in. As the sand and gold was dropped on the sheepskin, the water passed over it while moving through the stream. This pushed the light sand away while the heavier gold had more of a tendency to settled down into the thick wool of the unshorn sheepskin. Once the wool was dried, it was shaken out to free and collect the gold dust.

The Greek Mythological story of the “Golden Fleece” incorporates this form of gold gathering. Jason and the Argonauts go out searching for the Golden Fleece of the winged ram Chyrsomallos. The purpose of obtaining the fleece was to place Jason on the throne of Iolcus in Thessaly. The story was developed during the time of Homer (eighth century B.C.).

~~~~~~~

The Chinese have always been great in business. They are creative, ordered and very industrious. As gold spread around the world as a form of currency, the Chinese began to use small squares of gold as a legal form of money. Uniformity of the squares encouraged an equal value to be traded. This happened in the year 1091 B.C.

Coins, as we know them today, were first made in 560 B.C., in Lydia, a kingdom of Asia Minor. A determined weight of pure gold was measured. Some sort of indent or stamp was used to identify the coins, perhaps of a governmental leader or mythological character. Imagine the person who came up with the idea to put the leaders face on a coin. he must have been considered a public relations genius of his day. People no doubt traveled from long distances to see if they could catch a glimps of the person whos face was on a gold coin.

Purity was determined by fire and the coins were poured into shape. The acceptance of gold was becoming more and more institutionalized by governmental action. This made trade easier in the area of Asia Minor which was the major crossroads of civilization at the time.

~~~~~~~

In 344 B.C., Alexander the Great was in the midst of creating one of the largest empires in human history. Spoils of war were always part of the payment for the winners. The winner of the campaign was to possess large quantities of Persian gold. This was one of the early of a very long line of wars to be fought which included gold as spoils.

Alexander was a great military leader and no doubt enjoyed the spoils of war, but he was driven by more than that. He crossed the Hellespont with 40,000 men and defeated the Persians with brilliant tactics and the use of disciplined professional soldiers. There were more battles to win and much more gold to be had before Alexander was to die in his early 30′s.

~~~~~~~

Gold was becoming more desirable. As was often the case, wars were fought with gold being a major motivation. Gold was hard to find. It was hard to purify and it was just a matter of time before it entered into the mind of man that it might be able to be manufactured in a laboratory.

Around 300 B.C., in the city of Alexandria, the mind of the Greeks and Jews could not be kept down. They must have figured that gold was manufactured by some combination of heat, metals or other combinations which found itself in nature. From this they began to practice alchemy whereby they took base metals and tried to turn it into gold.

Of course, they knew they would be wealthy beyond their wildest dreams, if they could do it. This lust for wealth did not allow them to consider that gold was valuable not just for its beauty, but for its rarity. If they could mass produce it, would it still be as valuable? Perhaps so, but even though this attempt was continued through the Dark Ages up to the Renaissance, it was never successful. God must have wanted gold to be difficult to obtain and therefore rare.