The oldest civilizations known to man; the Sumerians of Mesopotamia, who has occupied and lived in what is now modern day Iran and Iraq, first used gold as sacred ornamental and decorative instruments in the fifth millennium B.C. Practically around the same period, the ancient Egyptians known as the richest gold producing civilizations of the ancient world, began the art of gold refining.
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Similar to the Sumerians, the Egyptians used gold primarily for personal adornment, although the kings of the fourth to six dynasties did issue some gold coins. The first large scale, private issuance of pure gold coins was under King Croesus (560-546 B.C.), the ruler of ancient Lydia or now Western Turkey. Stamped with his royal emblem of the facing heads of a lion and a bull, these first known coins eventually became the standard of exchange for worldwide trade and commerce.
Gold is traditionally weighed in Troy Ounces (31.1035 grams). It has a specific gravity of 19.3 or 19.3 times heavier than water. So gold weighs 19.3 kg per liter. Gold Field Mineral Services (GFMS) estimated that above ground stocks represented a total volume of approximately 150,000 tons, of which 61% had been mined since 1950. All the gold ever mined would form a cube measuring 19m on each side. The proportion of gold in jewelry is measured on the carat or karat scale. The word carat comes from the carob seed, which was originally used to balance scales in oriental bazaars. Pure gold is designated 24 carat, which is comparable with the "fineness" by which gold bar is defined. Internationally, the most widely used are 18 and 14 carats but 9 carats is popularly and widely used in the UK. Portugal has a unique designation of 19.2 carats. In the United States 14 carats predominates, but jewelry is traditionally 22 carats. "CKUK-HAM" or pure gold jewelry is of 990 fineness (almost 24 carat) is popular.
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The UK adopted a gold standard in the second half of the century, after the Napoleonic wars in the early part of 19th century. A number of nations in Europe and elsewhere followed suit, though some for a time based their currencies on bimetallic standard. The United States adopted the gold standard de facto in 1879 by making the "greenbacks" that government had issued during the civil war period convertible into gold. It then formally adopted the gold standard by legislation in 1900. By 1914, the gold standard had been accepted by a large number of countries, although it was not certainly universal. As far back as 3100 B.C., we have evidence of a gold/silver value ratio in the code of Menes, the founder of the first Egyptian dynasty. It is stated that one part of gold is equal to two and a half p arts of silver in value. This is the earliest of a value relationship between gold and silver.
