Apie Auksą
Gold and the Price of Gold
What is the price of gold?
The price of gold changes every minute. The price of gold on the London Stock Exchange for the last 30 days is shown in the graph below. The price is indicated in euros for one gram of 999 fine gold;
Gold price is the price of 999 fine gold on the London Stock Exchange
The price of gold jewelry is the price of gold plus the price of precious metals used in the product, the jeweler's labor costs, the materials and tools used by the jeweler to make the product, the artistic value of the product, the costs of transporting and storing the product, state, value-added tax (VAT) import taxes, and product assay fees.
What is Gold?
(source wikipedia.lt)
Gold – chemical element of the periodic table of elements, designated Au (lat. aurum, ang. Gold), ordinal number 79, precious metal.
Properties of gold
Gold is a bright yellow precious metal, and due to impurities it can have various shades (in alloys – from copper redness to silvery white). It is soft, ductile and malleable: gold wire is easily stretched, and thin (translucent) sheets (foil) are rolled out. Electrical and thermal conductivity ~30% lower than silver.
Interaction of gold with other elements
Like all precious metals, gold is resistant to air, many acids, and alkali. It is dissolved by aqua regia (a mixture of concentrated nitric acid and hydrochloric acid in a ratio of 1:3), hydrochloric acid and free chlorine (a mixture of hydrochloric acid and sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl) solution), and selenic acid (H2SeO4). At room temperature, gold dissolves in aqueous cyanide solutions - a complex salt is formed, heated gold reacts with chlorine to form gold(III) chloride, and combines with bromine at room temperature.
There are two known gold oxides (Au2O and Au2O3), which are formed by heating gold hydroxides obtained from gold salts treated with alkalis. They form colloidal solutions with some compounds. Salts of aurate acid HAuO3 (aurates) are unstable.
Metals and other reducing agents release gold from solutions of its salts. Alloys with silver, copper, platinum and other metals (gold alloys) are very resistant corrosion, plastic. With mercury, gold forms Amalgam.
Other properties
Gold crystals in the form of cubic syngonies, octahedra, cubes. Metallic luster. Hardness according to Mohs scale 2.5-3, melting point 1064.33.5 °C, boiling point 2855.85 °C, density 19,320 kg/m³. Gold in the Earth's crust is 4.3∙10-7 % by mass.
Gold Varieties
Common silver, copper, iron, manganese, lead, less often palladium, bismuth, selenium, iridium, platinum, mercury impurities. According to them, the varieties of gold are distinguished:
- gold nugget (4-15% silver),
- Cuproauride (up to 20% copper),
- porpecite (11.6% palladium),
- bismuthauride (up to 4% bismuth).
Often found in the form of dendrites, interveins, grains, flakes, plates, dust. Gold in rocks is of primary (igneous, pegmatitic), secondary, i.e. exogenous (river and marine sediments, conglomerates), and metamorphic (slag, hydrothermal) origin. Gold is found in Australia (in the state of Victoria), Brazil, Chile, India, Indonesia, USA (California, in the states of Alaska), Canada, China, Mexico, Mongolia, Norway, Peru, PAR (largest in the world Witwatersrand Goldfields), Russia.
The largest gold nugget ever found is the Holterman Plate (Australia, 1872) – 214.326 kg (85.05 kg of pure gold), the largest nuggets: The Desirable (Australia, 1869) – 68.08 kg. Japan (Japan, 1901) – 71 kg.
1995 Research conducted in Lithuania in the east of gravel and smėli contain gold. The Didžiasali, Didžiasali-2 and Salakas gravel deposits yielded 0.56; 0.3; 0.13 g/t gold, respectively. Gold was brought to Lithuania by glaciers that retreated from the gold-rich areas of Sweden and Finland.
There is more gold dissolved in the Earth's oceans than on land - 0.000004 parts per thousand.[1]
Where can I buy a gold bar?
You can purchase beautifully packaged, certified gold bars at our auksiniaipapuosalai.lt by clicking on this link, you will be able to choose the bar weights and see the prices. Gold bars
How is gold obtained?
In ancient times, gold was obtained by washing golden sand. One of the first ways to obtain gold was as follows: sheepskin coats with stones tied to them were lowered into the river, and golden sand was poured over them. The light gold sand flowed away with the water, while the heavier and larger pieces of metal remained in the wool. The coats with the gold in them were burned, the ashes were put into vessels and washed with water. After pouring off the murky water, the gold remained at the bottom.
Ancient Egypt knew how to extract gold and made various items from it (to this day, not only records about Egypt gold have survived, but also about the items of that time).
In the Middle Ages, gold was extracted from ores by amalgamation (using mercury) and purified by cupeliavimas.
19th century. less harmful production methods began to be used – dissolving chlorine in water or cyanide. This is how gold is obtained today: crushed ore concentrate is treated with potassium or sodium cyanide solutions, then precipitated with zinc or sorbed by onites. Gold is purified by electrolysis or by dissolving in acids.
In Lithuania gold appeared in the form of coins in the XIV-XV century. 15th century goldsmiths from Germany arrived in Vilnius. 1495 Vilnius Guild of Goldsmiths was founded. In the middle of XVI century, coins were minted in Vilnius: ducats, Portuguese, half-Portuguese. XVI-XIX a. gold items were also produced in other cities (Kaunas, Klaipėda, Kėdainiai, Raseiniai, Ukmerge) and imported from Poland, Germany and other countries.
Usage
Gold and its alloys are used for the production of coins and jewelry, medals, dentures, and chemical equipment. Gold-plated contacts and wires are used in radio engineering and electronics, and 198Au is used to treat cancer.
Gold in the economy, due to its properties (homogeneous, beautiful, durable, easy to process and transport, electrically conductive, resistant to corrosion), has a special use value, performs the function of money. Coins are minted from gold, gold is stored in special ingots as central banks of states. The state holds gold as part of its international reserves and can use it to cover the balance of payments deficit. Under the gold standard, gold performed the functions of circulation, payment, accumulation of wealth, and world money. After the creation of national currency systems, paper money (banknotes) and metal coins that were not convertible into gold, and later electronic money, prevailed in domestic circulation. Gold no longer fulfilled the functions of circulation and means of payment, remained a measure of value, retained the functions of a means of accumulation of wealth and world money, and remains the basis of the monetary system.
Since 1972 gold ceased to be the accounting currency of the International_Monetary_Fund and was replaced by Special Drawing Rights, but it remained the most important part of countries' international reserves. Unlike paper money, gold itself has value as a commodity. Gold is bought and sold on stock exchanges around the world. Most people buy gold for the purpose of investing money.
Gold is widely used in the electronics industry. It conducts electricity, is resistant to corrosion, and can be easily made into very thin conductors. Therefore, gold wires are often run to the microcircuits crystals.
In the food industry, gold (E175) is used as a metallic colorant on the surface of food products.[2]\\
Gold fineness
Fineness – the relative amount of precious metal in alloy.
The standard precious metal content in precious metal alloys is specified by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) or the state Unit of Measurement standard, which indicates the value of the alloy from which the product is made and the relative amount of precious metals in parts per thousand of the alloy's mass (i.e., it indicates how much precious metal is in 1 kg of the alloy). This ratio mark (assay mark) is stamped on the product. Precious metals include gold, silver, and platinum group metals.
Assaying is the determination of the quality and quantity of precious metals, their alloys, and the identity and characteristics of gemstones.
Metric fineness
Gold alloy finenesses 375, 585, 750, mean that 1000 parts by weight of the alloy contain 375, 585, 750 parts of pure gold. Silver is usually 800, 875, 916 and 925 fineness, platinum – 950 fineness.
Karatinė
In some countries (e.g. England, Switzerland), the karat measurement system is used to measure the amount of precious metal in 1 kilogram of alloy. This is a relative calculation system, where the total weight of the metal is equated to 24 parts. The purity of a precious metal is indicated by how many parts of the precious metal are in the entire 24-part alloy (for example, if a gold item is 18 carats, this means that it is made of an alloy in which 24 parts of the alloy contain 18 parts of pure gold. The carat fineness should not be confused with the unit of weight of precious stones carat.
Lithuanian fineness
In Lithuania, fineness and fineness are defined by the Republic of Lithuania's Precious Metals Law on State Supervision of Metals and Precious Stones. In the Republic of Lithuania, state supervision of precious metals and precious stones and their products is carried out by the Lithuanian Assay Office in accordance with the procedure established by this Law. The Law establishes the permissible finenesses for precious metal products: Platinum – 950. Gold – 375, 585 and 750.
Products containing less precious metal than stipulated by law cannot be sold as precious metal products. Also, products in which individual parts are not of precious metal, or the fineness of parts (for example, clasps) is lower than the MET marked on the entire product.
For example: In the Republic of Lithuania, the lowest silver fineness established in Article 7 of the Law is 800, i.e. the alloy must contain at least 80 percent silver. All products made from silver alloys containing less than 80 percent silver cannot be sold in Lithuania as silver products. The lowest silver fineness – 800 is established in international and European standards, as well as in Lithuania in the current Convention on the Control and Assay of Precious Metals.[3]
Russian Assay
In Russia, silver products began to be assayed in 1613, and gold products in 1700.
In the USSR, platinum products began to be assayed in 1927, and palladium in 1956.
Until 1927, the old Russian assay system was used in Russia and the USSR, based on the Russian pound, which was divided into 96 zolotniks. Therefore, gold of 1 zolotnik fineness would be such an alloy, where gold makes up only 1/96 of the alloy. Gold of 96 zolotniks is completely pure, and gold of 48 zolotniks is 50% gold.
In 1927, the USSR switched to the metric system of measurements, then the transition was also made to the metric system of fineness, which is still used in Russia.
Purities used in Russia
| metal | fineness |
|---|---|
| Gold | 375, 500, 583, 585, 750, 958, 996 |
| Silver | 750, 800, 875, 916, 925, 960 |
| Platinum | 950 |
| Palladium | 500, 850 |
Russian gold standards
The most common is 585 gold, the color of which depends on the impurities. For example:
- Pink gold - 585 gold with 36% silver and 5.7% copper is greenish, with 18.3% silver and 23.4% copper
- Red gold - 585 gold with 8.3% silver and 33.4% copper
- Yellow gold - 585 gold with equal parts of silver and copper.
958 gold is unstable, so it is used quite rarely.
375 gold contains 37.5% gold, 10.0% silver, 48.7% copper and 3.8% palladium.
For jewelry with diamonds, the so-called white gold is used:
- 585 white gold – 23.7-28.7% silver, 13.0-18.0% palladium or 17% nickel, 8.7% zinc, 16.0% copper
- 750 white gold – 7.0-15.0% silver, up to 15.0% palladium, up to 4% nickel, up to 2.4% zinc (or up to 7.5-16.5% nickel, up to 2.0-5.0% zinc), up to 15.0% copper
About 12.5% of people are allergic to white gold, because they are allergic to nickel. The reaction is mild, usually a minor skin rash.
Rusijos silver prabos
The most common silver is 875. It is used for silver jewelry and tableware to produce.
916 fine silver is used to make enameled tableware.
960 fine silver is used to make jewelry.
Silver (and brass) items are electrolytically coated with a thin layer of 999 fine gold or silver to prevent oxidation and make them more attractive.
Prabų table
| metric fineness | Russian fineness | karat fineness | alloys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1000 (999.99) | 96 | 24 | chemically pure precious metal |
| 958 | 92 | 23 | jewelry gold |
| 950 | (91.2) | (22.8) | jewelry platinum |
| 916 | 88 | 22 | jewelry silver, gold for dentures, British gold coin metal |
| 900 | (86.4) | (21.6) | gold and/or silver coin alloys (not British), denture gold |
| 875 | 84 | 21 | tableware silver (common in the former USSR and Tsarist Russia) |
| 800 | (76.7) | (19,2) | silverware |
| 750 | 72 | 18 | jewelry gold, denture gold and platinum |
| 585 | 56 | 14 | jewelry gold |
| 500 | (48) | 12 | cheap jewelry gold |
| 375 | (36) | (9) | cheap jewelry gold |
The numbers in brackets are the numbers of the finenesses that do not exist in practice. That is, the Russian fineness (48) means that there is no Russian gold with such fineness.
What are precious stones?
According to world practice, Precious stones are diamonds, rubies, sapphires and emeralds.
Display prices in:EUR
