A brief history of gold

Gold has been a desirable and valued commodity since before recorded history.

3000 B.C.

Archaeologists have discovered stashes of gold jewelry dating back to 3000 B.C. in what is now southern Iraq. Ancient Egyptians buried their rulers with elaborate gold adornments, such as the gold mask, sarcophagus and amulets that were fashioned for Egypt’s boy ruler, King Tut, in the 14th Century BC

Alchemy was a popular preoccupation for many centuries, as the most learned members of European, Chinese and Arab societies searched for a way of turning base metals into gold. They didn’t succeed, of course. But alchemists did discover many new elements in the process and laid the foundations of modern chemistry.

The search for gold launched European explorers on some of the most ambitious and ruthless overseas expeditions. Spanish Conquistadors plundered and ravaged the Incan and Aztec societies of the New World under orders from King Ferdinand to “get gold.”

1500 B.C.

Gold has been used as money for at least 3,500 years. The shekel began circulating in the Middle East in 1500 BC. The Chinese and the Romans followed with gold coins of their own. The ducat appeared in Venice in the latter part of the 13th Century and soon became the most popular gold coin in the world. Britain had its gold florins...

19th Century

In the 19th Century, gold rushes open up various parts of the world to sudden development – including Alaska, the Yukon, Nevada, California, South Africa, and Australia.

1840s

In the 1840s, British gold sovereigns and U.S. $10 gold eagle coins were both considered legal tender in Canada. The first Canadian bank notes were partly backed by gold.

1854

From 1854 until the outbreak of the First World War, Canadian currency was on the gold standard, meaning that the value of the Canadian dollar was fixed in terms of gold. It was a standard that Canada and much of the industrialized world used for much of the 20th Century – finally abandoning it altogether by 1971.

Today

Currently, most of the 2,500 tonnes of gold produced each year is used for jewelry. But as much as 20 per cent finds its way into such industrial applications as telecommunications and computers, where the metal’s high electrical conductivity is prized.