Gold has many useful properties. Gold conducts electricity, does not tarnish, is very easy to work with, can be put into wire, can be hammered into thin sheets, can be combines with many other metals, can be melted and cast into highly detailed shapes and has a wonderful brilliant color. Throughout the history of our planet, almost every established culture has used gold to symbolize power, beauty, purity, and accomplishment.
The primary use of gold is to make jewelry. In fact, roughly 78% of gold each year goes to manufacturing jewelry. Pure gold is too soft to stand up to the stresses applied to many jewelry items. Pure gold is 24 karat or .999. Craftsmen learned early on that alloying gold with other metals such as copper, silver and platinum would increase its durability. A interesting fact is that high-karat jewelry is softer and more resistant to tarnish, while low-karat jewelry is stronger and less resistant to tarnish – especially when in contact with perspiration. When used with other metals gold can be other colors. The colors that West Town Jewelry & Loan has seen over the years is Yellow, White, pink or rose and green. When we buy gold or sell gold we use state of the art equipment to test the karat.
Gold has been used throughout history as financial backing and investments used as a hedge. The gold used as a financial backing for currency was most often held in the form of gold bars, also known as “gold bullion.” The use of gold bars kept manufacturing costs to a minimum and allowed convenient handling and storage. Today many governments, individuals, and institutions hold investments of gold in the convenient form of bullion. We buy gold bullion and sell gold bullion.
Gold is used in manufacturing 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. A small amount of gold is used in almost every sophisticated electronic device. Just think about how many cell phones are out there. There are about 50 cents worth of gold in each cell phone, but when you multiply that by a billion phones that go in the trash, you have some big time money. Gold is used also in all computer devises.
Gold is known to have been used in dentistry as early as 700 B.C. Etruscan “dentists” used gold wire to fasten replacement teeth into the mouths of their patients. Gold was probably used to fill cavities in ancient times; however, there is no documentation or archaeological evidence for this use of gold until a little over 1000 years ago.
Gold was much more generously used in dentistry up until the late 1970s. The sharp run-up of gold prices at that time motivated the development of substitute materials. However, the amount of gold used in dentistry is starting to rise again. Some motivation for this comes from concerns that less inert metals might have an adverse effect on long-term health
Gold is also being used in the medical industry to treat different medical conditions. So you have many uses of this fine mineral in history and the world today. If you have any questions please feel free to contact us. As always when you want to bring in your gold to sell, we will pay top price!!