Perhaps the century’s pivotal ‘gold moment’ came in 1848, when John Marshall found flakes of gold while building a sawmill for John Sutter near Sacramento, California, triggering the California Gold Rush and hastening the settlement of the American West. But the effects weren’t confined to the United States; in 1850 Edward Hammond Hargraves, returning to Australia from California, predicted he would find gold in his home country within a week. And he did, in New South Wales. 1868 saw the next major discovery, in South Africa, where George Harrison uncovered gold while digging up stones to build a house. Since then, South Africa has been the source of nearly 40% of all gold ever extracted from the earth.

In 1900, the Gold Standard Act placed the United States officially on the gold standard, committing the country to maintain a fixed exchange rate in relation to other countries on the gold standard. This lasted until 1919, when World War I forced both the USA and Britain to suspend it. But the early 20th century also saw new discoveries and developments in finding out about the versatility of gold. The father of modern psychology, Sigmund Freud, even speculated about our obsession with gold, which he of course put down to ‘the erotic fantasies of early childhood’!

In 1927, an extensive medical study conducted in France proved gold could be valuable in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. Also, AT&T used gold contacts pressed into a germanium surface, as they developed the first transistor in the 1940s. In 1965, Colonel Edward White used a gold-coated visor to protect his eyes from the sun during the first space walk on the Gemini IV mission, and gold-coated visors are still a standard safety feature for any modern astronaut. In fact, gold would continue to play an important role in space exploration. For example, the first space shuttle (launched in 1982) used gold in its liquid hydrogen fuel pump.

As we enter the 21st century in earnest, gold is still one of the world’s most prized materials. It is now widely associated with notions of achievement; Olympic medals, Nobel prizes, Academy awards and the Palme d’Or (the Cannes Film Festival’s top prize), all rely on the positive connotations of gold. There have always been exceptions to this, from the golden calf in the Book of Exodus suggesting idolatry, to communist propaganda using gold as a symbol of bourgeois greed. And in Hollywood plots, stories of crime and greed often hinge on gold – Goldfinger, The Maltese Falcoln and Three Kings being some of the most famous examples. But by and large, gold continues its long tradition of being thought of positively throughout the world.

In practice, gold remains an economic anchor (the Euro is partly backed by gold reserves), a technological tool (giant gold-coated mirrors were used to capture the most detailed images of Neptune and Uranus ever produced) and is of course never likely to lose its aesthetic appeal. So the story continues…

Don’t forget to have a look at our After the gold rush page for more facts and figures about gold production in the 20th century.