Gold: A Brief History

GOLD bears may names in multiple cultures, The Ancient Egyptians called Gold “The Breath of God”, For the Romans “The Muscles of War”, the Incas called it “The Sweat of The Sun”, and The Aztec's called gold the “Excrement of The Gods,”.

For The English, The word “Gold” comes from the Old English word “Geolu”, meaning yellow.

But Let me tell you the true cost of this valuable metal, and its darkest secret and the most astonishing facts about Gold.

In times of war and conquest gold plays a valuable part here are some interesting facts, during the culmination of Gallic Wars, Julius Caesar gave each of his soldiers two-hundred gold coins, and subsequently paid off all of Rome's debt.

Marcus L. Crassus

Known as the richest Roman in history with an accumulation of wealth of 7100 talents or 8.4 billion in todays numbers. Marcus Licinius Crassus owned seized property from Sulla's political enemies during Sulla's Purges, to the speculative nature of real estate property investments, including ownership of several silver mines, and the buying and selling of slaves for profit by upskilling them.

In Accordance with Pompey, Julius Caesar, and himself, Crassus agreed on the Governorship of Syria, due to its inexhaustible wealth, for Pompey the province of Spain and Caesar the Lands of Gaul, but destiny has other plans for Crassus and his ambitions.

Occurring in the Parthian-Roman War in 53 B.C., The Battle of Carrhae, turned to disaster for the Roman General, Marcus Licinius Crassus, Crassus just arriving in Syria just a few years ago declared war and was swiftly defeated by the Parthians, Crassus was forced to negotiate by his soldiers, and upon arrival the situation was tense and was set upon and died, as a monument of his greed for Gold, the Parthians, poured molten gold down his throat as a symbol of his thirst for wealth.

King Ferdinand & Queen Isabella of Spain with Christopher Columbus

In 1511, King Ferdinand of Spain coined the immortal phrase: “Get gold, humanely if possible—but at all hazards, get gold.” By the 1599, a Spanish governor in present day Ecuador taxed the Jivaro tribe so excessively that they attacked the 12,000 strong settlement of Logrono and executed him by pouring molten gold down his throat alive. The settlement of Logrono still exist to this day.

Blood

A flash forward to the present What's even more interesting is the fact that gold is currently circulating the human body right now, but it just a small amount of 0.2 milligrams so you'll need 40,000 people for a Gold coin of 8g.

An unexpected new source of gold is trees? Yes you heard right eucalyptus trees to be precise, Australian researchers in the CSIRO, Australia's Science Institute, have found that Gold does indeed grow on trees, just microscopically on its leaves, but its less than 0.000005 percent of each leaf by weight, mainly due to the fact that Gold is probably toxic and is moved to its extremities (the leaves) to reduce deleterious biochemical reaction, the researchers wrote.

174,100 is the total number of tonnes of gold mined since civilisation

100 million people worldwide depend on gold mining for their livelihood

Australia has 79.85 tonnes of gold a value of 2.8 billion USD or 4 billion AUD

Fort Knox

The United States Bullion Depository, or Fort Knox Holds 4,600 tonnes of Gold with a value of 6.2 billion US dollars

The US Federal Reserve Holds 6,200 tonnes of Gold, the Gold is partly owned by the US Federal Reserve but most of it belongs to foreign governments, other central banks, and official international organisations. The Federal Reserve acts as the guardian and custodian of these gold holdings on behalf of its account holders, which also include the U.S. Government. It has an estimated value of half a trillion dollars.

And I'll leave you with this nearly half the gold ever mined comes from one place Witwatersrand, in South Africa. More gold has come from this area than from any continent, about 50,000 tonnes over 120 years, nearly half of all the gold ever mined. 

References:
http://www.sharpspixley.com/history-of-gold/
http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/gold/eureka/gold-fun-facts
http://www.investinganswers.com/investment-ideas/commodities-precious-metals/50-surprising-facts-you-never-knew-about-gold-1370
http://www.usfunds.com/interactive/gold-through-the-ages/#.VrW-c1KMX7x
https://gatesofnineveh.wordpress.com/2011/09/20/the-battle-of-carrhae/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Licinius_Crassus
http://www.carbgold.com.au/about.html?catid=12&id=12:facts-about-gold-13
http://mygeologypage.ucdavis.edu/cowen/~gel115/115CH8.html
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1769869/
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/the-filter/qi/8667421/QI-Quite-interesting-facts-about-gold.html
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/10/131022-gold-eucalyptus-leaves-mining-geology-science/
http://www.byondmarket.com/web/gold_facts.html
http://www.tradingeconomics.com/australia/gold-reserves
https://www.newyorkfed.org/aboutthefed/goldvault.html
https://www.fiscal.treasury.gov/fsreports/rpt/goldRpt/current_report.htm
http://www.factslides.com/s-Gold (FACT #17) 

-auslatino89/thexenologist