The metal that will not change
Why Is Gold So Special?
Almost every metal dulls, rusts or tarnishes. Gold sits there looking exactly the same for thousands of years.
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Step 1 of 5
It refuses to react.
Rust and tarnish happen when a metal joins up with the oxygen in air. Gold's outer electrons are held so tightly that oxygen cannot get a grip — so a gold mask from a tomb comes out bright.
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Step 2 of 5
It is astonishingly soft.
Pure gold can be hammered so thin you can see through it, and a single gram can be drawn into a wire longer than two football pitches. Jewellery is mixed with other metals just to make it tough enough to wear.
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Step 3 of 5
It was made in exploding stars.
The Earth never made any gold. Every atom of it was forged in violent events far out in space — collapsing stars and colliding dead ones — long before the Earth formed out of that debris.
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Step 4 of 5
Nearly all of it is still around.
Because gold never corrodes and is too valuable to throw away, almost every gram ever mined still exists. Some of the gold in a modern ring was probably worn by somebody in the ancient world.
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Step 5 of 5
It is genuinely rare.
All the gold ever mined would fit into a cube about twenty-two metres on a side. That scarcity, plus the refusal to tarnish, is why so many cultures independently settled on it as treasure.
Gold is also a superb conductor that never corrodes, which is why the contacts inside good electronics have a thin gold plating.
The short version
Gold is treasured because it never corrodes, bends easily, and is rare — and every atom of it came from space.
Try it yourself
Compare an old copper coin with a gold-coloured one. The dull one has reacted with the air; gold never would.
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