Submitted to:

Mr. Mrinaal Pingua

Group Members:
Lakshay Kathuria
Megha Bindal
Ridhi Kapoor
Gurleen Kaur

The history of gold begins in remote
antiquity.
But without hard evidence to pinpoint
the time and place of man's first happy
encounter with the yellow metal(gold).
According to some sources its found
that golds first discovery occurred in
about 6000BC.
Another mentions that the pharaohs
and temple priests used the relic metal
for adornment in ancient Egypt
about(circa) 3000 B.C.
The first use of gold as money in 700
B.C. is claimed by the citizens of the
Kingdom of Lydia (western Turkey).




Gold is precious for a few reasons
It is a rare metal.
It does not react under normal circumstances (it takes extreme conditions
for gold to react).
Gold is also prized for its color, as it is one of the few metals with a
distinct color, making it decorative.
It's shine and color drew the attention of people. and Its rarity, combined
with its rich appearance, made it a symbol of wealth.

Gold ornaments are a status symbol and associated with queens as it
implies that the woman was important, possibly of the elite and even a
princess or queen .
Gold has in a way always stood as a symbol for wealth, prestige and
power.
Through times immemorial gold jewelry has been the ultimate
ornamentation for kings, queens and noblemen.
A gold coin is a coin made mostly or
entirely of gold.
In modern times, most gold coins are
intended either to be sold to collectors, or
to be used as bullion coins.
Gold has been used as money for many
reasons as it is fungible, with a low spread
between the prices to buy and sell.
Gold is also easily transportable, as it has
a high value to weight ratio, compared to
other commodities, such as silver.
Gold can be divided into smaller units,
without destroying its value; it can also be
melted into ingots, and re-coined.
The density of gold is higher than most
other metals, making it difficult to pass
counterfeits. Gold is extremely uncreative.




The first type is the American Gold Eagle which in addition to gold is made up of
copper and silver alloy. The American Gold Eagle is the official gold bullion
coin of the United States.

The second type of gold coin is the South Africa Krugerrand which is created in
the South African Mint. One side of the coin features Paul Kruger who is a past
president of South Africa. On the other side of the coin is the image of a
Springbok.

The third type is the Chevronets which was introduced in Russia in 1701. It was
later replaced by the Ruble in 1757. At the end of the Russian Revolution, the
Russian government again introduced the Chevronets to make up for the
devaluation of the Ruble.

The fourth type is the Gold Panda which is made of 99.9 percent gold. On one
side of the coin is the image of the Temple of Heaven. The government of China
put a halt to the minting of the Golden Panda in 2002.

The fourth type is the Gold Panda which is made of 99.9 percent gold.
On one side of the coin is the image of the Temple of Heaven. The
government of China put a halt to the minting of the Golden Panda in
2002.

The fifth type of Gold Coin is the Britannia which is produced in the
United Kingdom. The Britannia is composed of 22 carat gold. It
contains 91.7 percent gold that is mixed with silver or copper.

The sixth type of Gold Coin is the Gold Maple Leaf which is minted by
the Royal Canadian Mint. The gold used for this coin is mined solely in
Canada. The Gold Maple Leaf is made up of 99.9 percent gold.

The last type of Gold Coin is the I slamic Gold Dinar which was first
used in the Kelantan State, Malaysia in September 2006. The Islamic
Gold Dinar is used for trading, as payment for merchandise and as a
form of savings. It is also used as a payment for dowries.


Because of the softness of pure (24k)
gold, it is usually alloyed with base
metals for use in jewelry, altering its
hardness and ductility, melting point,
color and other properties.

Alloys with lower carat rating, typically
22k, 18k, 14k or 10k, contain higher
percentages of copper or other base
metals or silver or palladium in the
alloy.
Copper is the most commonly used base
metal, yielding a redder color.





Eighteen-carat gold containing 25%
copper is found in antique and Russian
jewelry and has a distinct copper cast,
creating rose gold
Fourteen-carat gold-copper alloy is
nearly identical in color to certain bronze
alloys, and both may be used to produce
police and other badges.
Fourteen- and eighteen-carat gold alloys
with silver alone appear greenish-yellow
and are referred to as green gold.
White gold alloys can be made with
palladium or nickel. White 18-carat gold
containing 17.3% nickel, 5.5% zinc and
2.2% copper is silvery in appearance.

Gold artifacts such as the golden hats and
the Nebra disk appeared in Central
Europe from the 2nd millennium BC
Bronze Age.

Egyptian hieroglyphs from as early as
2600 BC describe gold, which king
Tushratta of the Mitanni claimed was
"more plentiful than dirt" in Egypt.
The earliest known map is known as the
Turin Papyrus Map and shows the plan of
a gold mine in Nubia together with
indications of the local geology.

The legend of the golden fleece may refer
to the use of fleeces to trap gold dust from
placer deposits in the ancient world.

In preparation for World War I the warring
nations moved to fractional gold standards,
inflating their currencies to finance the war
effort.
Post-war, the victorious countries, most
notably Britain, gradually restored gold-
convertibility, but international flows of gold
via bills of exchange remained embargoed.
After World War II gold was replaced by a
system of nominally convertible currencies
related by fixed exchange rates following the
Bretton Woods system.
Switzerland was the last country to tie its
currency to gold; it backed 40% of its value
until the Swiss joined the International
Monetary Fund in 1999.
The gold content of alloys is measured in
carats (k). Pure gold is designated as 24k.


Gold solder is used for joining the
components of gold jewelry by high-
temperature hard soldering or brazing.
Gold solder is usually made in at least
three melting-point ranges referred to as
Easy, Medium and Hard.
By using the hard, high-melting point
solder first, followed by solders with
progressively lower melting points,
goldsmiths can assemble complex items
with several separate soldered joints.
Gold is a good reflector of electromagnetic
radiation such as infrared and visible light
as well as radio waves.
Automobiles may use gold for heat
shielding. McLaren uses gold foil in the
engine compartment of its F1 model.
Gold can be manufactured so thin that it
appears transparent. It is used in some
aircraft cockpit windows for de-icing or
anti-icing by passing electricity through it.


Gold use in India, the worlds biggest buyer, may climb for the first
time in three years as rising incomes and inflation boost investment
demand, undermining efforts to narrow a record current-account
deficit.

Wedding demands
Around 50 percent of the countrys population is under 25, with 15
million weddings estimated every year till 2020, equivalent to about
500 tons of fresh gold demand, according to ICICIs Mundra.
Gold forms 30 percent to 50 percent of total marriage expenses, he
said.
Gold use in India, the worlds biggest buyer, may climb for the first
time in three years as rising incomes and inflation boost investment
demand, undermining efforts to narrow a record current-account
deficit.

History of Jewellery in India
History of Indian jewellery is as old as the history of the country itself.
Around 5000 years ago, the desire to adorn themselves aroused in
people, leading to the origin of jewellery. Since then, Indian women
and jewellery have gone hand in hand.
There cannot be a woman in India, who does not adore herself with
minimum jewellery. In fact, jewellery is considered as security and
prestige of women in the country.




The Gupta Empire took place from 320 AD to
500 AD.
Gupta art is regarded as the high point of
classical Indian art, and the coinage is equally
regarded as among the most beautiful of
ancient India.
The Gupta coinage started with a remarkable
series in gold issued by Chandragupta I, the
third ruler of the dynasty, who issued a single
type- the king and queen - depicting the
portraits of Chandragupta and his queen
Kumaradevi with their names on the obverse
and the goddess seated on a lion with the
legend Lichchhavyah on the reverse.


The coins of Samudragupta give us a lot of
information on the start of the mighty empire of
Guptas, and its economy.
The standard type discovered from Bangladesh,
Midnapore, Burdwan, HUGHLI and 24-Parganas
(North) depict the standing king holding a standard
and offering oblations on a fire-altar.
Kumaragupta-I issued various types of coins, viz.,
Archer, Swordsman, Asvamedha, Horseman, Lion
Slayer, Tiger Slayer, Peacock, Pratapa and elephant
rider type.
Kumargupta also minted fine silver coins during his
long reign.
Skanda Gupta issued three types of gold coins, viz.,
archer, King and Lakshmi, and Hors Man type. As a
lower denomination, he circulated debased silver
coins.
After the Huna war, even the gold coins were debased
with silver.
The History of the Indo-Greek Kingdom covers
a period from the 2nd century BCE to the
beginning of the 1st century in northern and
north-western India.
Generally, coins are circular, exceptions are the
few square ones of Appollodotos and
Philoxenos.
The gold and silver coins with fabulous
portraits, which circulated in Bactria were
never current in India as they fall under Greek
coinage category.
The coins with the portrait head and bilingual
fall under Indian coinage.
The portraits of early Indo Greek rulers such as
Euthydemos-I, Demetrios-I (wearing elephant's scalp)
and Antimachus (wearing Kausia - a flat shaped cap and
with a smily face) are so realistic in appearance that the
coin portrait seems to represent the ruler faithfully.
Indo-Greeks were excellent coin smiths and the fabric
far exceeded than the true Greek coins.
Indo-Greeks did not like abstract shapes and so they
modified Greek Gods to look like an Indian.
One of the copper coins of Hermois, the legend Kujula
Kadphises appears on the reverse. Probably this could
be assumed that the dynasty was succeed by the
Kushanas.
The Kushan Empire was an empire in South Asia
originally formed in the early 1st century in the
territories of ancient Bactria around the Oxus River
(Amu Darya), and later based near Kabul,
Afghanistan.
In the coinage of the North Indian and Central
Asian Kushan Empire(approximately 30-375 CE) the
main coins issued were gold, weighing 7.9g., and base
metal issues of various weights between 12g and 1.5g.
The coin designs usually broadly follow the styles of
the preceding Greco-Bactrian rulers in
using Hellenistic styles of image, with a deity on one
side and the king on the other. Kings may be shown as
a profile head, a standing figure, typically officiating at
a fire altar in Zoroastrian style, or mounted on a
horse.
The Kushana's coins reveals a great deal about the
rulers, coins were used as a media to propagate
Kings superiority.
Coins were the carriers for official propaganda of
greatness of Kings and deities of the empire.
Kushanas devised their coins with various Gods of
culturally, ethnically diverse population of the
empire.
Much of what little information we have of
Kushan political history derives from coins. The
language of inscriptions is typically the Bactrian
language, written in a script derived from Greek.
The mining of silver began some 5000
years ago.
Silver was first mined in about 3000
B.C. in Anatolia (modern day Turkey).
These early lodes were a valuable
resource for the civilizations that
flourished in the Near East and
Greece.
Silver has been used for thousands of
years for ornaments and utensils, trade,
and as the basis for many monetary
systems.
Its value as a precious metal was long
considered second only to gold.
The use of silver is also common in the
Roman currency during 2nd century
AD. Other uses of silver were also
recorded in the ancient Greece and
Rome regions.

SILVER BARS
AND COINS
Antonio de Ulloa, credited with the discovery of
platinum, returned to Spain from the French
Geodesic Mission in 1746.
His historical account of the expedition included
a description of platinum as being inseparable .
Ulloa also anticipated the discovery of platinum
mines.
In 1752, Henrik Scheffer published a detailed
scientific description of the metal, which he
referred to as "white gold".
Scheffer described platinum as being less
pliable than gold, but with similar resistance to
corrosion.




COIN MADE UP
OF PLATINUM

William Hyde Wollaston noted the
discovery of a new noble metal in July
1802 in his lab-book and named it
palladium in August of the same year.
After harsh criticism that palladium is
an alloy of platinum and mercury by
Richard Chenevix.
Chenevix received the Copley Medal in
1803 after he published his experiments
on palladium.
Wollaston published the discovery of
rhodium in 1804 and mentions some of
his work on palladium.
He disclosed that he was the discoverer
of palladium in a publication in 1805.


BAR MADE UP OF
PALLADIUM