On Monday we mentioned that a business association in Idaho is holding a raffle and the prize is a most unusual one. It’s not dinner at a chic local restaurant or a really big flat screen television…no the Wallace Business Community Association is giving away a gold mine.
You may be wondering just how one acquires a gold mine to give away in the first place…well, the Wallace Business Community Association bought the 30-acre claim on which the gold mine sits for $3,500. While we know more about the value of gold in terms of small pieces, we can say that this was a bargain since this claim could possibly bring in $15,000 in today’s market.
What would you do with a gold mine? There are a good number of historic museums and parks set up on the sites of gold mines that people opened up during the 19th century gold rush days. That is one way to use a fold mine
Surely someone has entered this raffle on a whim, having no idea what they would do if they actually won. The winner could always sell the gold mine if they had not interest in recreational gold mining. (The rules stipulate that the mine is only to be used for recreational gold mining, as opposed to commercial gold mining.) We are fairly certain that it is much easier to sell gold that it is to sell a gold mine. There is a lot less paperwork and legalities when you sell gold to a gold buyer.
The raffle will take place on October 2, so you still have time to hurry over to Idaho (if you are not already there) to purchase your raffle ticket.
How many times have you heard someone refer to something as ‘a veritable gold mine’? At the end of this week, one fortunate person will be able to claim to have a veritable gold mine on their hands, and this will not be an exaggeration at all.
The Wallace Business Community Association is sponsoring a raffle in which it will give away a gold mine. The gold mine is located close to an historic mining town called Murray in Idaho.
This Idaho town had its gold rush decades after the country’s most famous gold rush in California. It was 1883 when someone found gold there, but as was the case whenever someone found gold in the 19th century, people were ready to rush in to find their fortune. At the time a couple thousand interested parties made their way to Murray. Whenever a burgeoning new industry shows up, settlements follow. So within two years of the discovery of gold in Murray, 10,000 settlers had come to the area.
Like most “free” prizes, this one does not come without some requirements. The person who wins the gold mine will have to pay fee each year to the Bureau of Land Management. There are also restrictions on the use of the gold mine: it is to be used for recreational mining only.
Some prize, eh? You get to take on the responsibilities of property ownership and you cannot even do exactly as you wish with the property. Plus, it is going to cost you money to hold onto this prize.
When you sell gold to a gold buyer you don’t get a prize, but you do get cash for gold and there is no yearly fee. In fact, an online gold buyer will send you a postage-paid envelope so that you can send in your gold to be evaluated at no cost to you.
Earlier in the week, we discussed the Greek myth about King Midas. After an act of kindness, Midas was granted the ability to turn anything he touched into gold. At first Midas rejoiced because he was thinking about the value of gold and about all of the riches and cash for gold he would have once he was able to continuously sell gold. What he hadn’t considered was that when the Greek gods granted a wish, they didn’t get into all of the little details. Midas gold-making power was absolute and it did not go away when he wanted to touch something and NOT have it turn into gold, like his food for instance.
Midas sought help from the god Dionysus, the one who bestowed the gift in the first place. Dionysus took pity on him and told him to wash in a river to get rid of the power to touch things and make them gold. The river where he washed was known to contain a lot of gold, so perhaps this myth was a way to explain just why this was so.
Now that he was disillusioned with the idea of wealth and riches, Midas became a follower of the god Pan. Midas was there when Pan challenged the mighty god Apollo to a music contest. When it came down to deciding who won, Midas took the side of Pan. This was a mistake since Apollo did not like to be opposed. Because he felt that something was amiss with Midas’s ears for thinking that Pan’s music was better, Apollo turned Midas’s ears into donkey ears.
Once again, Midas’s did not think enough about his response. Thinking more before asking Dionysus to grant him the power to turn all that he touched into gold would have spared him some grief. And thinking about what was at stake might have made him reconsider voicing his opinion about Apollo’s music.
The story of King Midas from Greek mythology is well known, at least the basics of the story are well known–Midas was a king who was granted the extraordinary ability to turn anything that he touched into gold. But there is more to the story than that. Like most myths, the story also examines human frailty. We can be both noble and weak, as Midas himself demonstrated.
The action of the story is set into motion when Midas decides to be hospitable to and old satyr who has become intoxicated and passed out in Midas’s kingdom. When he recovers, the satyr entertains Midas and his friends. Midas did not have to treat the satyr so well, but since it pays to be kind, he did and he was rewarded.
When Midas brought the satyr back to the god Dionysus, the god offered to grant the king whatever he wanted. It is easy to say that the kind should have chosen world peace or some selfless thing, but when give the chance to have what we want, how many of us choose something selfless? What can be said is that King Midas should have given more thought to his choice because in choosing to be able to turn anything into gold, he drastically altered his life.
It was fun to touch a twig and see that turn into gold; it was not much fun to realize that he could not even eat since all that he touched became gold. There is even a version of the tale where Midas touches his daughter and she too turns into gold.
As miraculous as his power was, King Midas could not sell gold to a gold buyer because as soon as he touched any cash for gold he received, it would immediately become gold.
Last week we discussed gold markings such as karat weight and fineness. Although karat weight it the most common marking used for gold and the one that most people recognize easily, it will not hurt to be aware of other markings. If you want to get cash for gold from a gold buyer, it helps to know how gold is measured.
Another way to measure gold is troy weight. Troy weight is an international standard for measuring gold, and like fineness is really is not a part of our everyday vocabulary when it comes to talking about gold. When it comes to measuring gold, we are most likely to think about karats.
Troy weight is used to indicate the mass of a piece of gold, not it’s weight. Calculating the heft of gold by mass means that it will weigh a little less that it would if you weighed it using traditional methods. A troy ounce of gold is equal to 31.2034 grams and when you see that the weight of gold is communicated in ounces or pounds, it is likely that this is troy weight.
Why is the name troy used in conjunction with this particular measurement? Well, we can tell you that it has absolutely nothing to do with Helen of Troy, the face that launched a thousand ships or with Greeks bearing gifts. This measurement term got its name for a city names Troyes in France. Using troy weight as a method of measurement dates back to the Middle Ages, so people have been able to buy or sell gold with troy weight for quite a long time. Isn’t it rather amazing that with all of out technological advances, we are still using a measurement system from the Middle Ages to quantify gold?
When it comes to understanding how gold is measured, almost everyone understands karats. We discussed some of the finer points of karate weight measurement earlier in the week. The basic idea is that the higher the karat weight, the more pure gold a piece of jewelry contains.
So now you know the finer points of karat weight, but what about fineness? This term is not used quite as often, although it might be helpful to understand, just in case you see a measurement for fineness on a piece of gold jewelry you own or on gold jewelry that you would like to buy.
Perhaps one of the reasons that fineness is not discussed more often is because it is calculated in conjunction with karat weight. Some people probably think that karat weight is all the measurement they need to worry about when it comes to gold jewelry.
As we have mentioned, 24 karat gold is 100% pure gold and similarly, 24 karat gold is also 100% fine. When gold is less then 24 karats, its fineness also decreases. For example, 20 karat gold is 83.3% fine, while 14 karat gold comes in as 58.3% fine. Knowledge of this type of measurement may be useful for people who like to get an idea of things based on percentages. As you can see, while 14 karat gold is more than 50% gold pure gold, it is quite a few percentage points behind 20 karat gold. If you tend to think in percentages, fineness may help you understand the price you are offered for your gold jewelry when you sell gold to a gold buyer. The cash for gold you get from selling gold is based on the amount of pure gold that the gold you are selling contains.
Fineness is not a measurement that is usually stamped on a piece of gold jewelry the way that karat weight is, but knowledge of fineness is still useful.
A piece of jewelry may contain gold, but it may not actually be made of gold. There is a difference.
For example, most of us believe that karat weight is a sufficient indicator of value when it comes to gold. But what does karat weight really tell us? It tells us how much gold a piece of jewelry contains. It does not tell us that the jewelry is literally made of gold. The value of the gold in jewelry can change for you based on the reasons you have for keeping it around.
When you want to sell gold jewelry to a gold buyer, you should know that the more pure gold the jewelry contains, the more cash for gold you will get.
Jewelry designers know that gold is a soft metal. Keeping that in mind, jewelry designers know that sometimes it would not be practical to design pieces of gold jewelry that contain 24 karat gold, which is gold in its purist state. This is why they make jewelry from alloys that mix gold and other metals–they know that consumers want gold jewelry that will last.
When other metals are introduced, the karat weight of a piece of jewelry decreases. The gold it contains is still pure, but the karat weight changes because gold makes up less of the weight in the presence of other metals.
If you didn’t know this already, the most frequently used karat weights are a kind of equation– adding up to 24. Twenty-four karat gold contains 24 parts of pure gold; 18 karat gold is 18 parts gold plus 6 parts of other metals; 14 karat gold contains 14 parts of pure gold with 10 parts of other metals. Finally, 10 karat gold is the one equation where there is less gold than other metals because it contains 10 parts pure gold blended with 14 parts of other metals.
With the need for more and more ways to produce energy, scientists are once again turning to gold. As you know, gold is an ever-renewing resource since it can be recycled many times over. Some of the gold that is being used today may have been mined during the days of Shakespeare or maybe even Caesar. Who knows? Gold is not a disposable, one-time use only product. Instead, we are able to melt down objects made with gold, separate the gold from any other metals and materials and then start fresh with pure gold.
The U.S. Department of Energy has found that adding gold tips to nanocrystals can make a big difference in the way that those nanocrystals conduct electricity. In fact, the addition of gold tips causes nanocrystals to be 1,00,000 times more productive! They hope to one day use the gold-enhanced nanocrystals in solar cells that would generate electricity. And they would not stop there…the electricity generated by the gold-tipped nanocrystals would be used to divide water molecules in order to make alternative fuel. The alternative fuel created by this process would be renewable, so like gold, we would be able to use this fuel repeatedly.
While these advances involving gold and nanocrystals are being developed for the future, we know some great ways that you can use gold to boost your current energy levels. If you are feeling a little down in the dumps because your finances are not what you would like them to be, you can sell gold to get yourself going again. Getting cash for gold may be just the jumpstart you need. And you never know, the gold you sell to a gold buyer today may find its way into the fuel cells that get you from place to place tomorrow.
A British museum was recently awarded a grant that will allow the museum to start a new gallery that will exhibit rare objects of gold that hearken back to the Bronze Age. Some of the gold jewelry, gold weapons and gold armor that will one day be displayed in this new gallery were found on the Salisbury Plain, which is not far from Stonehenge.
Among some of the gold items that were found on Salisbury Plain were what one museum official said could be considered as Britain’s first crown jewels. Researchers believe that that the gold and other valuable items were once the property of someone of great significance. They cannot say for certain if this person was a military leader, a religious leader or royalty. It is quite possible that this person was all three of those things. The museum has wanted to let the public view these items, but did not have a proper space to do so. Perhaps once the public sees it, they will get even more feedback on just who the owner of all of this gold may have been.
Some of you may have gold items and you cannot exactly say where they have come from but you are not interested in putting them on display nor do you want to wear them. This is why you hid these gold items out of sight in drawers or left them in the attic. At the same time, you probably wish you could get a grant or some magic influx of cash…well, we cannot give you a grant, but we can give you cash for gold. When you decide to sell gold that you have forgotten about for years to a gold buyer, you can get money for gold as a reward.
News outlets recently reported that the land down under is set to surge ahead of the United States when it comes to gold production this year. You may not have event realized that the U.S. is a top producer of gold, but it is. And now, if reports are true, Australia is going to be producing even more gold that the United States. If this were to happen, that would mean that the only country that would produce more gold than Australia would be China.
The increase in gold production is a result of an increased demand for gold. More and more people are looking to buy gold. The price of gold rose this past week and some predict that the price for an ounce of gold will rise even more next year. A gold buyer keepa a close eye on the value of gold and you can too. That way you will know when is a good time to trade in your gold so that you can get the cash for gold you need. However, that does not mean that you should spend your days trying to see which day has the best price for gold. Especially if you think that getting some cash for gold could really help you out of a difficult situation.
Bearing all of this in mind, anytime is a good time to sell gold if you are looking for some extra cash. After all, they say that one should sell high, right? Unlike mining companies, which have complex machinery and operations, you will not have to mount a huge enterprise to extract gold. You may only have to open a drawer or check in your jewelry box to see that unused or broken gold jewelry is ripe for the taking.