10 Cool Facts About Gold That You May Not Know

Precious metals investing is an exciting world. Of course, you should know as much as possible about an investment before putting money into it. In fact, knowing just a few vital facts about gold can put you ahead of the game with buying bullion.

It’s important to note, though, that not every cool fact holds relevance for precious metals investing. After all, the fact that Ancient Egyptians valued silver more than the yellow metal will have little effect on today’s market. That doesn’t mean, though, that it’s not interesting.

Rather than looking at the history of bullion, we’ll delve into the general coolest facts about gold you probably don’t know. These might not affect the way you invest, but they’ll certainly offer a great conversation starter when someone asks about your newest gold bullion bar.

1.  Gold Literally Comes from the Stars!

Since we can literally watch gold come out of the earth, it’s easy to assume that the metal is terrestrial. Of course, there are plenty of things in the ground that didn’t start there. Gold is one of them. In fact, any gold you currently own likely came from the stars.

Like various other metals, gold forms during massive star explosions known as supernovae. When the Earth first formed, there wasn’t much of the yellow metal to speak of. Around 200 million years after its formation, though, a series of meteorites bombarded the planet.

Many of those space rocks contained the gold we currently mine from the Earth’s crust. This bombardment is the same that caused all the craters on the moon. If owning precious metals from space isn’t the coolest fact about gold, nothing else could possibly be.

2.  Edible Facts About Gold: You Can Eat It!

Most people wouldn’t find it wise to eat metal in their day-to-day lives. And considering the current price of gold, doing so simply wouldn’t be financially wise. Of course, an unwise course of action doesn’t necessarily equate to an impossible course of action.

As it turns out, gold is edible. Ancient royalty included the metal in their meals to show off their wealth. Interestingly, little has changed since that time. You can now purchase a variety of food items containing gold. One of the most popular liquors in the world even has gold floating in it.

Don’t get excited about this and toss your gold coins into a blender. Besides being a waste of money, most items containing the precious metal are alloys. This means you might end up consuming several other metals.

3.  All the World’s Gold Isn’t That Much

One of the most interesting facts about gold is that there’s simply not that much of it. There really are no current fears of shortages, but this makes sense in a world that can recycle the metal. When we look at the amount of gold actually mined, though, it doesn’t seem like nearly enough.

In fact, the U.S. Geological Survey states that all the gold discovered in history would fit into a cube less than 100 feet per side. This is smaller than one-third of a football field. To put this into perspective, we’ve discovered nearly seven times more silver throughout history.

4.  Anatomy Facts About Gold: It’s Inside Us

We’ve already discussed people eating gold, and even if you’ve never done this, the precious metal is still inside you. In fact, a person who weighs 150 lbs has about 0.2 milligrams of gold in their body.

Researchers recently discovered that this small amount is worth far more than its weight in gold to our bodies. It contributes to joint health, so thank the precious metal if you can move your elbows and knees.

And while the metal’s electric conductivity may not be a cool fact about gold, the reality of it sending electrical signals throughout our body certainly is.

5.  There Are Massive Reserves of Gold We Can’t Reach

If you knew where 20 million tons of untouched gold resided, you’d likely be on the first plane to the location. In reality, this amount of the precious metal is out there — untouched. And if you’ve ever been in the ocean, everyone’s favorite bullion surrounded you.

Unfortunately, all that gold is nothing more than tiny dissolved particles. And while there are complete pieces of the precious metal on the ocean’s floor, this is located over a mile below the surface. Mining in such an environment simply isn’t feasible currently.

If we’ve learned anything from these facts about gold, though, it’s that people are very pioneering with the yellow metal. It may not be long before someone cracks the code of extracting gold from the ocean.

6.  There’s a Gold Asteroid Worth $10 Quintillion

Now that we know most gold came from space, it’s no surprise that there’s plenty of the yellow metal still out there. Scientists believe there could be massive reserves on several planets throughout our solar system. For something really special, though, you need only look at 16 Psyche.

This is the name of an asteroid that floats somewhere between Mars and Jupiter. There are countless asteroids in that area, but 16 Psyche is special because it has a golden core. In fact, its gold content puts the value of the asteroid at around $10 quintillion.

If you’ve never heard this number before, there’s a good reason. It’s massive. Here it is written out: $10,000,000,000,000,000,000. This is worth more than the entire economy of the world. This makes a very interesting fact about gold: a single asteroid is worth more than all our money.

7.  Pure Facts About Gold: Pure Gold Is Moldable by Hand

Whenever you purchase a gold item, you may wonder why it contains other metals. After all, wouldn’t a coin be worth far more if it wasn’t an alloy? Certainly. Unfortunately, you likely wouldn’t have a beautiful coin for long.

That’s because gold is incredibly malleable. In fact, the precious metal is so soft that you could mold pure bullion by hand. If there’s one fact about gold we can all agree on, it’s that using it as Play-Doh isn’t a great investment decision. That’s why we’ve got zero problem with alloys.

8.  You Can Stretch Gold Pretty Far

Besides being incredibly malleable, gold is also very ductile. This means you can stretch it out without losing much of its underlying strength and durability. Just a single ounce of gold can actually stretch into a thread that’s 5 miles long.

If you ever wonder how some products include gold embroidery, this is how it’s done. Gold is simply an amazing precious metal.

9.  Most Surprising Fact About Gold: It’s Been Banned

If you have gold bars stored at home or in the bank, you might feel you’re living a relatively normal life. In modern times, that assumption is exactly correct. If you had the same item during the Great Depression, though, the law would have considered you a criminal.

In 1933, an executive order outlawed ownership of most gold throughout America. At the time, the country could only print money if it had gold to back up the value. The new order required everyone to hand over their bullion reserves to the U.S. government.

This played a major role in pulling us out of the Depression, but the order stayed in place until 1974. Most people see potential confiscation as the most surprising fact about gold. Fortunately, such a move wouldn’t make much sense in the modern world since we’ve left the Gold Standard.

10.  The Best Fact About Gold? You Can Easily Own It!

While most of these gold facts won’t sway investment decisions, they do show a precious metal with an exceptional story. Humans have valued gold for thousands of years, and this plays a significant role in how we currently view it. And even with everything we know, we’re still learning!

With any other material, you’d think all these amazing facts would put ownership out of reach. Fortunately, this isn’t the case with everyone’s favorite yellow metal. Even though demand for bullion has escalated in recent years, it’s still fairly simple to purchase gold.

At Silver Gold Bull, we strive to offer a selection that meets every investment and collector need. And while it may not be the most interesting fact about gold, the fact remains that we’ll beat any competitor’s price. Visit our Gold Bullion Products page today to see just how much we offer.