Gold fast facts

• Gold has been a highly sought-after precious metal for jewelry, coinage, and other arts since the beginning of recorded history.
• Symbol of Element : Au
• Gold never rusts.
• Gold metal is the most malleable and ductile pure metal known.
• Gold melts at 1064.43° Celsius.
• A total of 165,000 tonnes of gold have been mined in human history.
• An ounce of gold can be stretched over 80 km (50 mi).
• About 50 percent of gold is used in jewelry, 40 percent in investments, and 10 percent in industry.
• 75% of all gold in circulation has been extracted since 1910.
• A single gram of gold can be beaten into a sheet of 1 square meter.
• Gold is very dense, a cubic meter weighing 19,300 kg.
• Aqua regia was named so because it can dissolve the so-called royal metals, or noble metals, gold and platinum.
• In 2008, the price of gold topped $1,000 an troy oz for the first time in history.
• The purest form of gold is designated as being 24 carats.
• In 560 B.C., the Lydians introduced the first gold coin.
• Common uses of gold: currency, precious metal, jewelry, coinage, electronics, tableware and dental alloys.
• The last time Olympic gold medals were entirely of gold was in 1912 (Stockholm, Sweden).