In order that we may understand better the position which gold occupies in the arts and trades of the world, let us compare it with other metals, and first with platinum. This mineral is far less abundant and has many properties which make it valuable in the arts. Like gold, platinum is malleable and ductile and does not tarnish in the air, but it differs from gold in not being easily fusible, so that it is used in the laboratory for crucibles. The steel-gray color of platinum is, however, so much less attractive than the yellow of gold, that it is not used for ornamental purposes.
An effort was made at one time by Russia, where a comparatively large amount of platinum is found, to coin this metal into money, but its continued use was not found practicable because of its changing price in the markets of the world. If the leading nations would agree upon a fixed value for platinum, it might be used like gold as a medium of exchange.
Silver is brighter and more attractive than platinum, but is of little use in the laboratory. It has been found in recent years to be so much more abundant than gold that its value has decreased greatly as a commercial article. In our country when coined it has, like paper money, been given a value equal to gold.
The diamond has a value far exceeding that of gold, but this value is dependent almost wholly upon its ornamental properties, although the brilliant stone is also useful as an abrasive and cutting agent.
From these facts it is evident that gold, because of its rarity, its physical properties, and its beauty, combines a larger number of desirable characteristics than any other mineral.
Gold can be found in very small quantities nearly everywhere. It is present in all the rocks and also in sea-water. The gold that is distributed in this manner is of no value to us, for it would cost many times as much to obtain it as it is worth. Nature has, however, concentrated it for us in some places. In portions of the world where the crust has been folded and broken there are veins of quartz extending in long, narrow, and irregular sheets through the rocks. This quartz is the home of the gold, and it is usually found in hilly or mountainous regions.
Do not mistake the yellow iron pyrites for gold. Pyrites is brittle, while gold is malleable. You can hammer a little grain of gold into a thin sheet. Do not make the mistake, either, of thinking that the shining yellow scales of mica which you see in the sand in the bottom of a clear stream are gold. These yellow minerals that look like gold have been called "fools' gold" because people have sometimes been utterly deceived by them.
FIG. 99.—A GOLD-SILVER MINE
Summit of San Juan Range, Colorado