The 16th century saw no decline in ruthless leaders lusting after gold. In 1511, King Ferdinand of Spain made his famous call to action: “Get gold, humanely if you can, but all hazards, get gold”, launching massive expeditions to the newly discovered lands of the Western Hemisphere. It wasn’t until nearly 200 years later, in 1700, that gold was discovered in Brazil, which by 1720 became the largest producer, responsible for nearly two-thirds of the world’s gold output.

In 1700, Isaac Newton (as Master of the Mint) fixed the price of gold in Great Britain at 84 shillings, 11.5 pence per troy ounce. The Royal Commission, composed of Newton, John Locke and Lord Somers, recommended a recall of all old currency and the introduction of new a coin, with a gold to silver ratio of 16:1. The gold price established in Great Britain was to for over 200 years.

In 1744, the resurgence of gold mining in Russia began with the discovery of a quartz outcrop in Ekaterinburg. Forty years later, the first US gold coin was struck by Ephraim Brasher, a goldsmith, to be followed in 1792 by the United States being placed on a bimetallic silver-gold standard under the Coinage Act, which defined the dollar. However, it wasn’t until 1799 that the United States first discovered gold – a 17-pound nugget in Cabarrus County, North Carolina.