The history of gold

The history of gold

Most likely, people first discovered gold in streams and rivers around the world, which dates back to 2200 BC, and its beauty and brilliance attracted attention. Also, at this time, the use of gold in the manufacture of jewelry and other decorations was not allowed, except for pharaohs, priests and high political officials.

It is interesting to know that in 1804, with the discovery of gold in the American state of California, the biggest rush of gold in this era took place.

In 1885, the discovery and search for gold began in South Africa!
But gold is foreign! Almost all gold found in the world today did not originate from Earth. Instead, the gold we know today came from meteorites that bombarded Earth 200 million years after the planet formed.
* Gold is inside us! On average, a human weighing 70 kg has more than 0.2 mg of gold inside him. Small amounts of gold are found near the heart and in the nail bed.
In fact, the history of gold and jewelry goes back a long way, according to the National Mining Association, it was first used in 4000 BC by present-day Eastern European cultures to make decorative objects.
* You can eat gold!

* You can safely eat gold in the form of gold leaf or glitter. Pure gold is non-toxic and passes right through your digestive system.

Gold in general was only used to make jewelry and idols for worship for several thousand years.
It wasn’t until about 1500 BC that the ancient Egyptian empire, profiting greatly from its gold-rich region of Nubia, made gold the first official medium of exchange for international trade.

From the beginning, something about gold attracted civilizations all over the world without those civilizations ever coming into contact with each other.
Since its discovery, it has been a symbol of beauty, power, purity and success. Not only does gold’s natural beauty make it so precious and mysterious, it may also be the most useful metal in the world.
Gold is an excellent conductor of electricity, it does not tarnish and oxidize.

Gold is also one of the few commodities that can also be considered a currency or monetary asset, most of the mined gold still exists today.
While many currencies around the world were backed by gold until recently, gold is still effectively used as a safe-haven asset in times of economic turmoil to preserve wealth.

History of the gold standard and coins

The interesting thing about gold is that, for unknown reasons, its mysterious ability to attract people around the world independently of each other allowed it to become an accepted medium of exchange anywhere in the world. Throughout history, gold coins have been minted, however, many coins were not minted by any central authority, but simply hammered by ordinary people.

This ability to make homemade coins, so to speak, which were accepted as legal tender, gave rise to their irregular shape. Obviously, setting these home mints was difficult, and a method called cutting was a common problem with gold and silver coins.

Unfortunately, this incident caused the weight of the coin to be less than the real value of the coin and it no longer has a valuable tender, especially abroad.

Another issue was that minted coins, protected from being cut by a special engraving, were easily counterfeited by casting with counterfeit dies or stamped with counterfeit dies.
which in the end led to problems in the exchange of goods with gold coins.

During the Second World War it was clear that after the end of the war a new international system was needed to replace the gold standard of exchange, so its plan was drawn up at the Bretton Woods Conference in the United States in 1944.

The political and economic dominance of the United States required that the dollar be at the center of the system. As a result, the dollar was pegged to gold at the existing parity of $35 per ounce, while other currencies had fixed but adjustable exchange rates to the dollar.

Unlike the classical gold standard, capital controls were allowed to enable governments to stimulate their economies without suffering financial market penalties. And still this procedure continues to some extent.

The first record and history of gold, coins and gold in Iran

During the Achaemenid period, for the first time in the world, a gold coin was minted by Darius the Great in Iran, which is called Darik.

Until that period in the world of that day, gold coins were not minted in a standard way.
Common coins were made of copper, bronze and silver, and gold coins were minted in other countries after Darius.
During the Sassanid era, gold consumption was abundant in Iran. According to the writings of well-known historians such as Will Durant, Girshman, Chardin and others, in different historical periods, the production and trading activities of gold and jewelry, precious stones and natural materials have been very prosperous.
At that time, the aristocracy and the rich generally used precious ornaments made of gold and jewels.
There is not enough to say about the magnificence of the artistic works of Iranians in the Achaemenid and Sassanid eras.
The kings of this dynasty, such as Hormuz I, Khosrow II, paid so much attention to making aristocratic ornaments, especially the royal throne, that it has surprised historians.
Byzantine historian Theophylactos and Arab historian Thaalabi wrote about the throne of the mentioned kings and admitted that in the history of gold, Iranian gold and jewelers were always famous in their era.