Postal Gold Blog – Everything About Gold

Gold is one of the most useful minerals mined today because of its unique properties.  It is durable, highly malleable and can withstand many extreme conditions.

Here are a few interesting facts about the use of gold in industry:

• Of all the gold that gets mined yearly, 10% is used for industrial purposes – about 400 tonnes of gold.  Most of this gold is used in Japan, followed closely by the USA.

• Gold is a good electrical and thermal conductor.  Because of this, it is found in almost all electronic devices, including mobile phones, washing machines and even pocket calculators.  The gold used in electronic devices is refined until it is nearly 100% pure, and it is then stretched into a thin wire that is one hundredth of a millimetre in diameter (gold is extremely malleable when pure).  The wire is then used to connect semi-conductors and circuits.

• Gold is crucial in the telecommunications industry.  The diaphragms of telephone mouthpieces contain gold, and it is also used to plate the contacts of phone jacks and connecting cords.

• Gold is also used extensively in aeronautics.  It is an excellent reflector and offers protection against light and infrared rays.  Because of this, pieces of space shuttles are covered with a gold coating in order to reflect radiation and keep the inside temperatures constant.  Astronaut’s helmets have a gold coating on the visors to protect their eyes and skin from solar radiation.  Gold is also used to lubricate parts inside space shuttles because it decreases friction.

• Gold nanoparticles have a wide variety of uses.  They improve solar cell efficiency, are used to make home pregnancy testing kits more effective, and much research is being done on their potential for use in the medical industry.

All in all, gold isn’t just used for pretty objects that adorn our bodies.  It is an extremely useful and practical metal, and much of society depends on it!  Since the amount of gold available for us to mine is dwindling, it is crucial to keep what gold we have in circulation, and recycle old gold.  This is why it is important to send old electronic devices to recycling centres, so that gold and other valuable parts can be re-used.  And if you’re strapped for cash and have scrap gold lying around (such as broken jewellery, gold coins or dental gold), it’s a good idea to send it in to Postal Gold – not only will you be doing a good deed, you’ll also be getting money for it!  Visit the Postal Gold website – Postalgold.com – to find out more about recycling old gold.

Image by Wendy Harman

Up until now, around 150,000 tonnes of gold have been excavated from the earth.  It is estimated that we have 50,000 tonnes left available for mining.  However, it has also long been known that the world’s oceans contain about 6 million tonnes of gold dissolved in sea water.

Naturally, many entrepreneurs and scientists have tried to find ways to extract this gold, dreaming of fortunes untold.  One of the most notable of these was the German chemist Fritz Haber, who received a Nobel Prize in 1918 for developing a way to synthesise ammonia.  After the First World War, Germany was forced to pay an astronomical sum of money in reparations.  Haber decided to investigate the viability of extracting gold from sea water, hoping that it could be a way to help his country pay off these debts.

However, as Haber soon found out, one tonne of sea water contains only a minuscule amount of gold.  The amount varies in different locations, but it can be approximated that a litre of seawater contains 13 billionths of a gram of gold.  Extracting the gold from seawater would produce an amount of gold that would, if you were lucky, barely cover the costs of extracting it in the first place!  And this is provided that the method of extraction is 100% efficient, which is very difficult to ensure.  Haber decided after much experimentation and investigation that the extraction of gold from seawater was highly uneconomical.

However, Haber was not the last person to investigate this possibility.  Since his time, many others have tried to find ways to efficiently extract gold from the sea.  Methods proposed (and rejected) include everything from using mercury to form an amalgam with the gold, to introducing microbes that ‘breathe’ in gold and solidify it in their waste products.

Perhaps the future will see us with advanced technology that will make gold extraction a viable and economic option.  Until then, we will just have to stick with good old fashioned gold mines, as well as recycling old gold.  On that note – if you are looking for gold buyers to recycle your scrap gold, be sure to check out Postal Gold’s website.  Since we can’t yet make gold out of water, we might as well make sure that the gold that we already have stays in circulation!

Gold was enormously important in the Inca Empire.  It was not used as currency and had no monetary value.  Instead, gold was sought after for its religious value.  In Inca mythology, gold represented the sun, while silver represented the moon and copper represented the earth, all of which were worshipped as deities.  The Incas made an alloy of gold, copper and silver, which resulted in a metal that they called ‘tumbanga’.

Tumbanga melted at a lower temperature than that of gold or silver, was harder than copper and nearly as malleable as pure gold.  For that reason, tumbanga was the ideal metal for manufacturing all gold objects in the Inca Empire.

Objects made of tumbanga were used for funerals and other religious ceremonies.  At funerals, the deceased were decorated with masks, breastplates and headdresses made of gold.  Ceremonies often required sacrifices to the gods, and gold instruments were used for killing the  sacrificial animals.  Rattles, cups and sculptures made from tumbanga were also used in the ceremonies.  Inca craftsmen were highly creative and talented and made necklaces, bracelets, sandals and many other ornaments with tumbanga.  There were almost no limits to what the Inca craftsmen could produce with gold.  Women from families of high social status sometimes dressed from head to toe with plates of gold.

When a person died, the descendants did not inherit the gold.  Instead, all gold was buried with the deceased.  This is why the best collections of Inca gold have been found in tombs by archaeologists and treasure hunters.  Incas also used gold to decorate the walls and altars of their most important temples.

When the Spaniards discovered the Americas, they also discovered the large amounts of gold that the Incas had.  For them, gold had no religious value but was highly coveted for its monetary value.  While the colonisation of the Americas was violent enough, the opportunity to acquire gold made it even more so.

The Spaniards plundered the Inca temples, took sacred statues of deities and other religious objects and melted them to make gold coins.  They sent ships laden with tumbanga home to Spain.  But these ships were frequently attacked by pirates, who also wanted a piece of the treasure!  Since the ships were made of wood and were much more fragile than our modern ships, they were often sunk, either due to pirates or stormy weather on the seas.  This resulted in much of the Inca gold ending up on bottom of the ocean, where much of it still lies today!

Wouldn’t it be exciting to go deep-sea diving on a treasure hunt for ancient Inca gold?

A bacterium named Ralstonia Metallidurans seems to be able to transform dust into gold, according to an article in Science magazine from July 2006. This discovery was made by a team of Australian investigators who analysed gold grains from 2 gold mines situated at a distance of more than 3.000 km distance. They verified that 80% of those grains contained the microbe.

This bacteria absorbs heavy metals that can be found dissolved in the soil – these metals are toxic when present in high quantities – and it converts them in solid and less toxic forms.

Accordingly to Frank Reith, the person in charge of this investigation, the presence of this microbe in the grains of gold is due to the ability the organism has to detoxify the environment surrounding gold grains. This investigator also maintains that his discoveries are the strongest proof that microorganisms have a big contribution towards the formation of gold nuggets, although the exact mechanisms involved in these transformations are as yet unknown.  This theory has been questioned by several scientists who maintain that gold grains come from bigger forms or are a result of chemical processes.

For more information check out Postal Gold.

A lot of people are worried about being ripped off these days, what with oil prices escalating (especially now with the BP oil spill), food prices soaring and daily living expenses sky rocketing. It is getting harder and harder to make ends meet, and people are constantly searching for other options in terms of income. There have been new companies popping up world-wide, and now with the price of gold higher than ever there are numerous businesses providing a service to post your scrap or old gold in for some extra cash, such as Postalgold. Some people fear that these companies are rip offs, and although some most certainly are – there are also some which aren´t. One can only advise to do your research, in both pawn shops and other companies such as postal gold and find the price which best suits you!

A review is a critical contemplation usually cited in the form of an article or report on a book, a play, a meal, or a service which has been provided; it is a critique; an evaluation. Companies are then able to use that information, to further improve whatever it is that they are providing, or trying to market. Receiving honest feedback like this can improve a company if they use the information wisely. A company such as Postal gold, can use their reviews to beat their competitors in the market and work on their services. When reviewing a company like Postalgold it is important to think about what service you wanted in the first place, what they promised you as a customer and if you received that service.

Postal Gold are a company offering a service to anyone who has any gold which they have, and don’t want anymore. It may be broken jewellery, an old wedding band, gold coins, teeth – pretty much anything so long as it is gold. Postal Gold are buying people’s gold so that they can melt it down into bullions which they can then sell on the market. It is a relatively new service, and Postal Gold are one of the bigger companies operating around Europe. Customers are able to order a free Postal Gold kit, which they can then post for free. Postal Gold will make an offer within 24 hours of receiving the gold, based on the quality and the grade. The customer then has the oppurtunity to accept or decline the offer, should the latter be their choice, Postal Gold will then ship their gold back to them for free. A considerably painless option for people looking for a way to get a bit of cash from the gold lying around their house!

People have always been searching for Gold as a way of making money. It´s a crazy thought to think of the Gold Rush – particularly in Australia – where people travelled all over the world with the hope of making their stakes in the ”Promised Land”, in a time when it took about eight months to travel there by boat!
One particular artist travelled to Australia from England, went there hoping for exactly this. His name was Thomas Woolner, one of the founding members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. He was the only sculptor amongst them, and his journey to Australia inspired the famous painting by Ford Maddox Brown, ‘The Last of England’, 1855.
Unfortunately for Woolner he was unable to find much gold, but it was not an entirely pointless journey. After six months he sold his tools, and moved from the gold-digging sites to Melbourne, where he began making reliefs of well known citizens out of bronze, charging them twenty-five guineas. He also met Sir Henry Parkes in Sydney, with whom he contiuned correspondance and through him was comissioned to make a huge bronze statue of Capitan James Cook which now stands in Hyde Park, in Sydney.
Woolner might not have found any gold, but his trip was certainly worth while in the end. You might also be pleasantly suprised to see how much your gold is worth. Postalgold evaluates your gold for free – it’s certainly much easier than having to travel eight months by boat!

Postal Gold is a company who are offering to pay money for gold, which they then turn into resellable gold bullions. They were established so people who may be looking for extra money could get some extra cash for broken gold necklaces, bracelets, gold coins or just scrap gold lying around. They have set up a postal system – which doesn´t cost the user any money – where you can request them to send a form. You then send in your gold, by registered post, which they pay for and will insure for up to 500 pounds. They will then assess the worth of your gold and then offer you a price. They send the payment within twenty-four hours after their assessment, and the customer has the choice on how to recieve the payment, whether it is mailed by cheque or transferred into a bank account. The customer then has forteen days to consider the payment, where they have the choice to accept, or to request the gold be sent back to them – also free of charge.

Postalgold´s terms and conditions