Water is more expensive than gold if you haven't drink for 2 days in the middle of the dessert.
In simple term, we eat food and we are not gonna eat gold, right? So why it's more expensive then?
I think it's because gold can be used in many different field, NASA, they have gold-shielded helmet that protects your eyes from the sun when you are in the space, remember the movie 'deep impact'.
Gold is used everywhere in Intel and processors, every processors have gold inside, so don't throw your old PC in the garbage bin, if you are around near me here in Nanning, China, I would love to buy your used processor (I know how to recycle it, my family have 35 years experience in gold-smithing, my dad have a small company with 26 employees, they make jewelries, wedding rings, pendants, and earrings)
Silver is about 7-8 cents/gram, but gold is around $20/gram. My family was lucky enough, my parents and I was homeless, and we stay in my father sister's house. After 1998 world monetary crisis, my mom buy 12 houses, 4-5 floors each. Because it was $2/gram before 1998 and at 1998 the prices sky-rocket to $15-16/gram. She instantly have 2Mil dollars in her bank account and buy 'some' houses, house is also a good investment, but it depends on your house locations and environment, not every house is a good investment.
My dad's company have a profit about 60-90k/month, sometimes 150k in high season, and 20k in low season (there is a tradition in Indonesia that other countries doesn't have, it's called 'mudik', which literally means 'back home to village' and the village is real lol), and the tax in Indonesia is very cheap only 10% (I heard in US it's 40-50%, and they even tax the jobless too? is it right?). How do I know my dad's profit? I was once take his 'seat' lol, when he travels to some countries for 28 days, so yea, it's like become a 'mini-boss' for a month yay!
My mom have a small gold jewelry store and old yes, but sometimes, she can make a 10k profit in 20 minutes talking (actually she is a cutthroat businesswoman, which means every time somebody sells gold to her and stupid enough not to know recent price 'lol to myself', she can make massive profit instantly), wow, that's money way too easy, I don't need to school then, no no, I have to get my Master degree like my sis do. Darn, I'm in China and Chinese is a 'unique' language to learn, it's like studying symbols and like studying 2 different languages at once.
There are something more precious than gold, it's called palladium, but it's rare. I have some, they have higher melting-celcius from gold, which mean harder to process.
here are some lists in gold-smithing:
First rule, there is no such thing as 99% carat jewelries, common people doesn't know this. Gold found in chunk and always not pure, the highest is 99.99 carat, and it's not on every country.
to make jewels you need gold, silver and copper. Not regular copper you used everyday on cables and electronic devices, you need pure copper it's worth 5 cents/gram. Please note about the gold/silver/copper price, I don't follow the recent price, I'm planning to stay in China for 4 years, it's already 1 year, I'll take Master degree in QingHua University, they have 2 persons with Nobel Prize winner here.
the lists in jewelries - in 10 grams jewelries ratio.
70 carat gold = 7 grams gold + 2,1 grams copper + 0,9 grams silver
80 carat gold = 8 grams gold + 1,4 grams copper + 0,6 grams silver
90 caret gold = 9 grams gold + 0,7 grams copper + 0,3 grams silver
so the composition is (10 grams ratio) 70% gold + 21% copper + 9% silver.
the highest jewelries you can make is 94% or 94 karat, it's only on old-age jewelries, we don't produce these kind of jewelries today, btw you can bend(85 karat-94 kart) the ring if some of your friend say he just bought a 90 karat ring, just try, it won't damage the gold.
Palladium a.k.a white gold, they only use this in a very small amount in gold-smithing, it's worth around $30/gram. You can try to burn it with a 200-celcius firethrower, and after that you put that thing on a bucket of water, it will have bulbs for around one minute, If you do the same thing to gold/silver/copper, the bulbs will only lasts 1-2 seconds.
I know most of haven't seen palladium in real life, but it's OK for me to share this, actually I'm planning to make this a new thread myself but it's find here.
In US and most countries, the gold is below 60 karat, and even 40 karat, or only the skin have gold.
Gold that you find in the mine is smelterred into pure gold 99,99, it has $/troy ounce price in the world market. 10 kilos is called bullion. If you are lucky enough you still can find those Spanish bullion somewhere on the seas, when you swim near Tortuga.
So, any further questions about gold? gladly help you.
Some of the information here is consider classified, gold store owner doesn't want you to know about these stuff, if you tell them, they might a lil bit freak out, just try it.
