Gold Amazing Facts
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Thermal Conductivity
Gold is an excellent conductor of thermal energy or heat. As many electronic processes create heat, gold is necessary to transfer heat away from delicate instruments. For example, a 35% gold alloy is used in the main engine nozzle of the Space Shuttle, where temperatures can reach 3300° centigrade. Gold is the most tenacious and long-performing material available for protection at these high temperatures.
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The most expensive golden coin in the world
One of the world's rarest god coin, the 1933 Double Eagle, was sold at Sothey's auction house in New York on Tuesday 30th July 2002 for the record sum of $7.59 million.
The coin, featuring a standing Liberty on one side and an eagle on the other, was minted in 1933 at the height of the Depression but never circulated as President Roosevelt abandoned the Gold Standard. All 445,500 coins, each with a face value of $20, were put into storage and ordered to be melted down in 1937, but it was not until the 1940s that it was discovered ten coins had not been returned. Nine of them were subsequently recovered but one coin got away and ended up in the collection of King Farouk of Egypt. But it disappeared again in the mid 1950s and resurfaced in 1996 when a UK coin dealer attempted to sell it to undercover Secret Service agents in New York.
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Resistance to corrosion
Gold is the most non-reactive of all world known metals. It is benign in all natural and industrial environments. Gold never reacts with one of the most active elements- oxygen, which means it will not rust or tarnish. The gold death-mask in the tomb of Tutankhamun looked as brilliant when it was unearthed in 1922 as when it was entombed in 1352 BC.
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Ductility and Malleability
Gold is the most ductile of all metals. As a result, a single ounce of gold can be drawn into a wire five miles long. Gold's malleability is unparalleled. It can be shaped and extended into extraordinarily thin sheets. For example, one ounce of gold can be hammered in to a 100 square-foot sheet.
Gold doors to a bank in Oman
There is a gold doors bank in Oman. The gilding of doors goes back to ancient times when fire gilding and later mercury gilding techniques were used to produce a gold-rich surface layer. The famous Corinthian Bronze of the Roman Empire is an example of this used in the great gate of Herod's Temple in Jerusalem.
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A Gold Winner
The World Cup Trophy high and is made of solid 18-carat gold and is 32 cm high.
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The first known gold jewellery
A major archeological finds of early jewellery were in the Royal tombs of Ur, in Mesopotamia, dated to around 2,600 BC where gold articles made by lost wax casting included a wild ass on the rein ring of a chariot. Copper and bronze inlaid with gold also date to this period, demonstrating the craft skills in metalworking that existed. A beautifully modelled bull cast in gold dating to 2,300 BC was found in the Caucasus in eastern Europe. In Egypt, gold jewellery have been found in Pharoah's tombs dating to around 1500 BC and later.
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