The Evergreen Portfolio: Timeless Strategies to Survive and Prosper from Investing Pros

Chapter 12. Gold Facts

Duane Poliquin

Gold is the earliest metal to be used by humans. Imagine humankind's first encounter with gold when an early human spotted a bright yellow nugget in a creek and picked it up. Gold's luster is not dependent on reflected light, so no matter how he turned it the nugget remained the same beautiful color. It did not tarnish or diminish in any way with time. Most likely he attached it to a leather thong and it became the first gold neck ornament, maybe a gift to his lady.

However this occurred, every society on earth that has had access to gold has valued it very highly, and this happened independently in many places. A culture based in what is now Eastern Europe began to use gold to make decorative objects around 4000 B.C. The gold used was probably from the Mount Pangeon area in northern Greece or from the Transylvanian Alps (the area of Gabriel Resources Ltd.'s Rosia Montana deposit).^[28] The ancient Egyptians thought of gold as a divine and indestructible metal, associated with the brilliance of the sun, with almost supernatural qualities. The skin of Egyptian gods was believed to be of gold and so the Pharaoh wore a lot of gold in order to appear more godlike.^[29] There are many references to gold and silver in the Bible and in ancient Greek, Roman, and Persian literature.

An early reference from India is from a Vedic text written about 1750 B.C.:

A hundred gold pieces from the fame-seeking king, Together with a hundred horses as a present have I ...