Scrap Gold Blog

Last week Chelsea Art Museum hosted an exhibit by Kotaro Fukui from Japan. The Chelsea Art Museum is located in New York.

The exhibit is entitled ‘Silent Flowers and Ostriches’ and it will continue through April 17th, 2010. Kotaro Fukui’s artwork includes a 24 foot long painting that uses gold foil. This painting is entitled ‘Silent Flower.’

The painting depicts a blue iris on a gold foil background. The gold foil covers a special handmade Japanese paper called washi.

Fukui’s artwork is very symbolic. The iris is a traditional token to ward off evil in various parts of Asia. In particular, soldiers used to paint it on their armor for protection. The iris also represents longevity.

Gold is used fairly frequently in Japanese art as a background for flowers or as the leaves of the flowers.

A generous citizen donated an 1887 Queen Victoria £5 coin to an Oxfam bookstore in Troon today. Julie McCulloch, manager of the store said that as soon as she was given the coin, she knew it was valuable.

She put it up for auction on the internet. The coin collected £871 for the Oxfam bookstore.

McCulloch rejoiced, “Every once in a while you get a real gem like this stunning coin and it gives us all a real thrill.” A volunteer at the shop, David Tennant said, “The coin really had the wow factor.”

This 1887 gold coin was created to celebrate Queen Victoria’s gold jubilee and it is also known as a Jubilee Head. A Golden Jubilee was a celebration of a fifty year anniversary. For Queen Victoria, her golden jubilee celebrated fifty years since her accession and was celebrated with a feast that was attended by fifty European kings and princes. The front of the coin depicts Queen Victoria. The back of the coin depicts St. George defeating a dragon.

Gold has held significant religious meaning throughout the ages. The Egyptians believed that gold was associated with the sun. They called it a divine and indestructible metal.

 The Pharaoh was even referred to as the “Golden Horus” in reference to the Sky God. Gods were also believed to have golden skin.

Due to the religious significance of gold, the precious metal was used for several religious ceremonies. Gold funerary masks had been discovered with many of the bodies of the pharaohs.

The most famous funerary mask is the one found with the well-known Pharaoh Tutankhamen. Many golden artifacts were also discovered in Tutankhamen’s tomb. There is also evidence that they used small golden figurines of the gods in their ceremonies.

In addition gold was used for many traditional things such as jewelry, artifacts, and as decoration on chariots. Gold was very important as a sign of royalty, but commoners did not have access to the precious metal. As a result, gold was not used as a monetary resource. Trade was carried out through bartering instead.

The largest ring ever made of gold is the Najmat Taiba or the Star of Taiba. This ring weighs 62. 87 kilograms which is about 58, 849.7 grams of 21 karat gold, and 25,850 carats of crystal stones.

 The diameter from the inside of the ring to the opposite inner side is 50 centimeters with the outer diameter meeting 70 centimeters. This is 20 centimeters thick!

The ring has so many valuable materials in it that it cost $547,6000.00 simply to have it made. It is said that this ring took 45 days working 10 hours per day to complete. The rind was made by Saudi jewellery retailer Taiba for God and Jewellery Co. Ltd.

This ring is too big to be worn, but many people have had replicas made on a smaller scale so that they can wear it. The ring was most recently put on display at the Kanz in the Dubai Deira Gold Souq.

The Olympic medals are tokens of honor, a signature of incredible feats, and one of the most coveted objects by athletes in the world. Every two years the design of the Olympic medals is tailored specifically by each host of the Olympic Games. 

The medals must be not smaller than three millimeters thick and 60 millimeter in diameter. The gold and silver medals are 92.5 percents silver. The gold is then lined with at least six grams of 24 carat gold. Bronze medals are made out of copper, zinc, tin, and a slight amount of silver.

For the Beijing Olympics 6,000 medals were awarded to outstanding athletes. All together the medals contained 12.04kg of gold, 1340 kg of silver, and 830 kg of copper.

However, extra medals always have to be made in addition to the ones needed for each sport in case there is a tie or something happens to the other medals.

Historically the ancient Olympians were awarded with a crown of olive leaves. In 1896, when the Olympics were revived, the gold medal was considered to be inferior to the silver. It was not until 1904 when gold became the most coveted medal.

Currently, the Olympics are running in Vancouver, Canada. As of today, the United States is leading with 8 gold medals.

One of the most unique and rare American coins is the American Buffalo coin which contains one troy ounce of gold. A troy ounce is equivalent to 31.1035 grams. It is about the size of a half dollar coin and has a face value of $50, but does not have any mint marks. When minted, it was required by law that the gold in the American Buffalo coins had to mined in the United States and minted at the United States Mint at West Point.

 The coin first receive congressional authorization in 2005 with the “Presidential $1 Coin Act.” It was not distributed until 2006. The coin draws upon the long western American history by featuring the head of a Native American man and an American Bison. James Earle Fraser was the American sculptor who originally created the design. Fraser studied under well-know coin designer Augustus Saint-Gaudens. This coin is recognized worldwide and the mint guarantees the quality of each American Buffalo gold coin.

Have you ever wondered what a gold karat is?  If you are looking to purchase, sell or have your gold appriased it is important that you understand what a karat is.  Gold is usually marked as either 14K, 18K, 10K or 24K.  The K is the symbol for karat.

One Karat means that the object is 1/24 gold or approximately 4% gold. 

The higher the number that precedes the K the more pure gold there is in the object. 

Many then wonder why anyone would by anything but 24K gold.  The answer to this question becomes apparent when we study the nature of gold as a metal.  Metal in it’s purest form is very soft.  If someone is shopping for a gold wedding band they will want the metal to be durable and last for many years and 24K gold would not be the best choice.

There are some countries in Southeast Asia and central Asia that prefer 22 or 24K gold and would view the common 14K gold in America as greatly inferior.

The natural form of gold is the gold nugget.  Gold nuggets are created through water and erosion that deposit nuggets in concentrated location. These nuggets are then be found by placer or lode mining methods. They are also deposited in gold veins that have decayed. Today, gold nuggets are also found near old mining operations especially old dredging operations.

Generally, gold nuggets are never more than 20 to 22K in purity of their composition. This is about 83 to 92% pure. The largest gold nugget to be discovered was a whopping 2,332 ounces! This humongous chunk of gold was named the Welcome Stranger Nugget and was discovered under the surface in  Moliagul, Australia in 1869.

The second largest gold nugget to be found weighed 61 pounds, 11 ounces and was discovered in Wedderburn, Australia in 1980. This nugget was named the Hand of Faith Nugget. The Hand of Faith Nugget is exhibited in the Golden Nugget Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The prices of Gold has been skyrocketing recently! Take advantage of this and save your scrap gold. All of the old jewelry that is laying around your house can easily be turned into money.  All you have to do is find a business that you trust, collect the gold and turn it in!

Make sure that you find a company that is trustworthy, because you want to get the most amount of money you can for your gold shop around.  Take your time and find the business that will give you the best price for your gold.

Understanding what your gold is worth is crucial as you look for someone to buy your gold.  Take yoru gold into an appraiser and find out how pure the gold is before you even set out to sell it.  Then look at what the going price for gold is.

After you have figured out what you believe to be a reasonable price for your gold start shopping for a buyer! When you find the buyer that best matches the price you have set for yourself, you will have gotten rid of some junk around the house and ascertained a little extra cash.

Long Beach, California plans to host a fantastic gold exhibit February 3rd through 6th. This exhibit features $20 million worth in gold coins, brick, dust, nuggets, and much more. Most of the gold was recovered from a shipwreck 8,000 feet below the waves off the coast of North Carolina in 1857.

The ship that the gold was recovered from was entitled the Ship of Gold because of the vast wealth it contained. There was a variety of coins discovered on the Ship of Gold, including $20 California gold coins, territorial gold coins, gold nuggets and gold dust. There were also many gold bricks and ingots from the California Gold Rush discovered in the wreck. One bar contains 933 ounces of gold and was consequently dubbed the “Eureka Bar.” In 2002, this bar was sold for $8,000,000.

All of the gold in the exhibit has been generously loaned. Several books have been written about the historic discovery of the Ship of  Gold. The History Channel also produced a program exploring the mysteries of the Ship. A few of the experts who worked on the shipwreck will also be at the exhibit to answer questions.