Sunday, October 30, 2011

Uses of gold in Monetary exchange

Gold has been widely used throughout the world as a vehicle for monetary exchange, either by issuance and recognition of gold coins or other bare metal quantities, or through gold-convertible paper instruments by establishing gold standards in which the total value of issued money is represented in a store of gold reserves.

However, production has not grown in relation to the world's economies. Today, gold mining output is declining.With the sharp growth of economies , and increasing foreign exchange, the world's gold reserves and their trading market have become a small fraction of all markets and fixed exchange rates of currencies to gold were no longer sustained.
Pure gold is too soft for day-to-day monetary use and is typically hardened by alloying with copper, silver or other base metals. The gold content of alloys is measured in carats (k).
Pure gold is designated as 24k. English gold coins intended for circulation from 1526 into the 1930s were typically a standard 22k alloy called crown gold, for hardness (American gold coins for circulation after 1837 contained the slightly lower amount of 0.900 fine gold, or 21.6 kt).

Uses of gold in Jewelry



Everyone love jewelry because it is very beautiful n precious too .All people love the jewelry which adds more beauty to the people who wear it ,The production of ornamental objects was probably the first use of gold over 6000 years ago. Gold is found in the pure state, is very easy to work and was probably the first metal used by humans. in the modern world jewelry have very high price to talk about the jewelry it is made from the gold which is very  softness of pure (24k) gold, it is usually alloyed with base metals for use in jewelry, altering its hardness and ductility, melting point, color and other properties.Copper is the most commonly used base metal, yielding a redder color. Eighteen-carat gold containing 25% copper is found in antique and Russian jewelry and has a distinct, though not dominant, copper cast, creating rose gold. Fourteen-carat gold-copper alloy is nearly identical in color to certain bronze alloys, and both may be used to produce police and other badges. Blue gold can be made by alloying with iron and purple gold can be made by alloying with aluminium, although rarely done except in specialized jewelry. Blue gold is more brittle and therefore more difficult to work with when making jewelry. Fourteen and eighteen carat gold alloys with silver alone appear greenish-yellow and are referred to as green gold. White gold alloys can be made with palladium or nickel. .Special properties of gold make it perfect for manufacturing jewelry. These include: very high luster; desirable yellow color; tarnish resistance; ability to be drawn into wires, hammered into sheets or cast into shapes. These are all properties of an attractive metal that is easily worked into beautiful objects. Pure gold is too soft to stand up to the stresses applied to many jewelry items.White gold is an alloy of 75% gold, 4% silver, 4% copper and 17% palladium. Other alloys yield pink, green, peach and even black colored metals. Since then most gold used to make jewelry is an alloy of gold with one or more other metals.
The alloys of gold have a lower value per unit of weight than pure gold.In general, high karat jewelry is softer and more resistant to tarnish while low karat jewelry is stronger and less resistant to tarnish.


Uses of gold in Industry

Gold is also important in industry Gold solder is used for joining the components of gold jewelry by high-temperature hard soldering or brazing. If the work is to be of hallmarking quality, gold solder must match the carat weight of the work, and alloy formulas are manufactured in most industry-standard carat weights to color match yellow and white gold. Gold solder is usually made in at least three melting-point ranges referred to as Easy, Medium and Hard. By using the hard, high-melting point solder first, followed by solders with progressively lower melting points, goldsmiths can assemble complex items with several separate soldered joints.

Uses of gold in Electronics

 Gold is highly conductive to electricity, and has been used for electrical wiring in some high-energy applications. For example, gold electrical wires were used during some of the Manhattan Project's atomic experiments, but large high current silver wires were used in the calutron isotope separator magnets in the project.
Though gold is attacked by free chlorine, its good conductivity and general resistance to oxidation and corrosion in other environments has led to its widespread industrial use in the electronic era as a thin layer coating electrical connectors of all kinds, thereby ensuring good connection. For example, gold is used in the connectors of the more expensive electronics cables, such as audio, video and USB cables. The benefit of using gold over other connector metals such as tin in these applications is highly debated. Gold connectors are often criticized by audio-visual experts as unnecessary for most consumers and seen as simply a marketing ploy. However, the most important industrial use of gold is in the manufacture of electronics. Solid state electronic devices use very low voltages and currents which are easily interrupted by corrosion or tarnish at the contact points. Gold is the highly efficient conductor that can carry these tiny currents and remain free of corrosion. Electronic components made with gold are highly reliable. Gold is used in connectors, switch and relay contacts, soldered joints, connecting wires and connection strips.
A small amount of gold is used in almost every sophisticated electronic device. This includes: cell phones, calculators, personal digital assistants, global positioning system units and other small electronic devices. Most large electronic appliances such as television sets also contain gold. One challenge with the use of gold in very small quantities in very small devices is loss of the metal from society. A facts nearly one billion cell phones are produced each year and most of them contain about fifty cents worth of gold. Their average lifetime is under two years and very few are currently recycled. Although the amount of gold is small in each device, their enormous numbers translate into a lot of unrecycled gold.

Saturday, October 29, 2011

History of silver

From the ancient time it has been known as a precious metal Silver compounds were used to prevent infection Silver has been used for thousands of years for ornaments and utensils, for trade, and as the basis for many monetary systems. Its value as a precious metal was long considered second only to gold. The stability of the Roman currency relied to a high degree on the supply of silver bullion, which Roman miners produced on a scale unparalleled before the discovery of the New World. Reaching a peak production of 200 ft per year, an estimated silver stock of 10,000 t circulated in the Roman economy in the middle of the second century AD, five to ten times larger than the combined amount of silver available to medieval Europe  when it was used for several purposes, such as to  used in food coloring disinfect water and food during storage, and also for the treatment of burns and wounds as wound dressing. In the 19th century, sailors on long ocean voyages would put silver coins in barrels of water and wine to keep the liquid potable. Pioneers in America used the same idea as they made their journey from coast to coast. Silver solutions were approved in the 1920s by the US Food and Drug Administration for use as antibacterial agents.

History of gold

Gold artifacts  appear from the 4th millennium BC Although the price of some platinum group metals can be much higher, gold has long been considered the most desirable of precious metals, and its value has been used as the standard for many currencies in history. Gold has been used as a symbol for purity, value, royalty, and particularly roles that combine these properties. Gold as a sign of wealth and prestige .On that imaginary island, gold is so abundant that it is used to make chains for slaves, tableware and lavatory-seats.There is an age-old tradition of biting gold to test its authenticity. Although this is certainly not a professional way of examining gold, the bite test should score the gold because gold is a soft metal, as indicated by its score on the Mohs' scale of mineralhardness. The purer the gold the easier it should be to mark it, 75% of all gold ever produced has been extracted since 1910. It has been estimated that all gold ever refined would form a single cube 20 m.In medieval times, gold was often seen as beneficial for the health, in the belief that something that rare and beautiful could not be anything but healthy. Even some modern esotericists and forms of alternative medicine assign metallic gold a healing power. The first use of gold as money occurred around 700 B.C. Their symbol for gold was the circle with a point at its center , which was also the symbol and the ancient Chinese character for the Sun. For modern creation of artificial gold by neutron capture,During the 19 th century, gold rushes occurred whenever large gold deposits were discovered. The first documented discovery of gold in the United States was at the Reed Gold Mine. The first major gold strike in the United States occurred in a small north Georgia town called Dahlonega. Because of its historically high value, much of the gold mined throughout history is still in circulation in one form or another.

Friday, October 14, 2011

How to Invest in Gold or Silver

Investing in precious metals such as gold and silver can be done by purchasing items which are made of them. Some of which include jewelry, coins, bars or bullions. These can be purchased in legitimate stores and over the internet.investing in gold for financial survival has become a necessity as the entire world. Making matters worse, the United States is in the midst of a spectacle of deficit spending like the world has neverseen.Although investing in gold is not yet mainstream, investing in gold has become the safe haven for many investors who fear that the creation of fiat dollars will not stop until the dollar is worthless.

In precious metals bull markets, investing in silver instead of investing in gold provides greater percentage gains because silver outperforms gold in precious metals bull markets.Adding to the appeal of silver to investors is the huge and growing industrial demand for silver, which means that investing in silver could be profitable for years to come.

But, the primary reason investing in silver instead of gold results in greater profits is that silver is "the poor man's gold." When the masses come to this market, they will buy silver, and in the aggregate the masses have more money than the wealthy.Gold or silver investment has great potential. These do not depreciate in value. They have been proven to be more effective in trade over the past 6,000 years.