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For what it's worth Gold can be found as alluvial deposits in most rivers around the world in minute quantities these however are not worth trapping in most cases. In some parts of the world though there was a time when you could just for the effort of picking it up make yourself a very wealthy individual. Alluvial, Placer or Native gold as it is sometimes termed exists in a crystalline form in a matrix usually of quartz, which originated in the Earths crust many millions of years ago. Over the years the gold had been weathered away by rain and frost, washed down the hillsides and away from what the prospectors call the mother load, where it can be in the form of dust or if you are really lucky, in the form of nuggets which is a lump designated to be a quarter of an ounce or more. The most famous lump that has ever been found was in a cart track in New South Wales back in the ninetieth century which was two feet long it would have been difficult to move as the weight would have been considerable. Gold has always been the preferred choice of investment for governments and individuals as it is portable in times of political unrest and financial instability. Henry VII gave us the gold sovereign at the end of the fifteenth century, it was the equivalent to the 20 silver shillings which were up to then the basis of the U.K. monetary system. The guinea came later, so named as it was made from gold from the Guinea coast of West Africa. In the beginning the guinea was the equivalent of 20 shillings, but after the restoration at the end of the seventeenth century silver was in such short supply that silversmiths started clipping the silver coinage to obtain enough raw material to cope with the commissions from the new court. It didn’t take long for the people to demand an extra shilling to make up for the bits that had been clipped off. In 1717 the guinea was officially proclaimed to be worth 21 shillings and it remained that for the next 100 years. By the early nineteenth century it was becoming unwieldy as a suitable unit for complicated calculations in this new emerging commercial nation. In 1817 the old sovereign worth 20 shillings was brought back, however this time it was made of 22 carat gold and weighed 123.27447 grains they were eventually taken out of circulation as a currency in 1917. Cont. See Gold the Story III and IIII etc. |