1) In 2002, Sotheby’s auctioned a 1933 Double Eagle gold coin for a record sum of 7.59 million dollars.

2) Fine gold can be beaten into sheets with a thickness of 0001112 mm. A pile an inch high would contain more than 200,000 sheets.

3) The modern term “karat” (the measurement for gold purity) comes from the word carob, because carob seeds were once used by Chinese merchants to balance their scales.

4) All of the gold in the world could be compressed into the area of an 18 yard cube.

5) It is harder to find a one-ounce gold nugget than it is to discover a five-carat diamond.

6) Gold is so heavy that one cubic foot weighs 1000 pounds.

7) The largest gold nugget in America was found in California and weighed 195 pounds.

8) The United States government banned private ownership of gold from 1933-1974.

9) Gold is so soft it is seldom used in its pure form.

10) South Africa is the largest producing gold country in the world today.