Gold Silver Prices

If you are looking to find out today’s prices for gold and silver, you’re in the right place. We update the gold and silver prices every couple of hours. We also include here gold price history chart, silver price history chart, a couple of cool interviews we found online and other goodies for all gold (and silver) “diggers”…

Gold Prices Today 2012-05-20 06:00:19

Silver Prices Today 2012-05-20 06:00:19

Interesting Gold statistics

From: Number Sleuth

The source of information and graphics is Kitco.com

Gold Prices History

30 Day Gold History Chart

60 Day Gold History Chart

6 Months Gold History Chart

Silver Prices History

30 Day Silver History Chart

1 Year Silver History Chart

Interesting interviews on youtube…

The history of gold as a store of value and banks have been deeply intertwined since the boom of modern commerce. Gold coins were, in fact, among the very first mediums of trade after barter was scrapped due to its limitations. By then, banks were only keepers of gold and not regulators of monetary policy since there was no monetary policy to talk about during those times in the first place.

The relationship of gold and banks became even more prevalent with the introduction of the gold-standard monetary policy. The gold standard allowed people to carry money that does not have any intrinsic value but were convertible to gold. The idea then was that any people with money in his pockets could immediately have it changed to a fixed weight of gold by the nearest bank.

These days, the relationship between gold and banks are a bit more blurred since the abolition of the gold standard. The increase in gold supply is not enough to meet economic expansion. Likewise, it is difficult to manipulate gold supply to favor a country’s demand for money. This has given rise to fiat currency, which is money whose value is derived only from the guarantee of the government issuing it.

Since then, gold bars and gold coins have remained as a good portion of the reserves of central banks, who keep gold as a store of value to use in times of extreme crisis.

Given this bit of history, do banks sell and buy gold? It is difficult to give a direct answer of “yes” or “no,” but you would surely be hard-pressed to find a registered bank that would sell you gold.

Most bank branches typically do not store gold bars or gold coins in their premises because of the way central banks typically distribute coinage to them. Most central banks, including the Federal Reserve, usually requires up-front fees from commercial banks whenever they require newly minted gold coins. Gold bars are already out of the question. You can always try, especially if what you want toget are commemorative coins, but there is no guarantee.

Likewise, most banks do not buy gold from individual clients, while some banks who do sell gold to clients do not buy. Buying gold would, of course, require experts in gold appraisal and these people are not always in the bank premises. You can try the largest branches of these banks.

The good point about buying and selling from banks would be that you are at least guaranteed of exchange prices pegged at real-time figures.

If you want to buy or sell gold, the place to go to would be the gold mints. Central banks are also good places to visit as they regularly release newly minted commemorative coins that are fit for collections. Better yet, when buying gold, just purchase from any of those prescribed dealers who will keep them for you while you receive a certificate purchase in return. This is the safer way of making purchases.

So to summarize, do banks sell and buy gold? Not always. Most of the time they don’t.

Introduction
Gold has been used for making coins since coinage started; this is due to the intrinsic value of the metal. Use of gold coins as an investment has increased to great extent during the past few decades.

Previously people used to buy gold jewelry, but the investment was not very profitable, as jewelry items are not composed of 24 carat gold, and they are sold after deduction in price.

When jewelers are selling gold items, they charge you for the whole weight, but when you sell the same items they shall subtract weight of all the stones, and the impurities. This makes gold jewelry a secondary choice for investment.

Are Gold Coins a good Investment?

Several people having spare funds ask the question, are gold coins a good investment? Well the answer is yes. Investing is gold is a lot better than investing in property, bonds, and mutual funds. Gold investments are more lucrative, especially as compared to property investments; as rate of return is high and more secured.

During extreme days of recession, value of property decreased to a great level, but gold rates were almost unchanged. Twenty four carat gold coins are the purest ones sold in the whole market, they are almost hundred percent pure. Traces of other metals may be found in such coins, but only for the purpose of minting.

Common gold coins start from weight of just five grams. Looking at graph of gold rates, you can expect to have a significant return over your gold investment within six months.

Ease in Selling and Buying Gold Coins

Selling gold coins is really easy; almost all jewelers are willing to buy coins at market price, they might keep them as investment, or melt them for making jewelry. But if you want to sell real estate, finding a buyer and getting a decent price is not that easy, in some cases it may take you years to find a buyer for your property.

The best time for buying gold coins is when there is a temporary decrease in bullion prices. There is no difference in gold rate for a light or heavy coin; you get paid for each milligram. Small coins are easy to buy, easy to store and can be kept safe at home or in a bank locker. So, are gold coins a good investment? Yes, they surely are.

Precautions
Buying and selling gold coins is pretty easy, but you have to take care of a few things. The very first thing is to be careful in purchasing a gold coin; there are several chances of getting duped with a replica. To avoid such incidence, it is better to buy coins from a reliable source.

In most cases, you shall find coins in tamper proof packs, and manufacturer’s name is mentioned on the coin and the packing. Weight, code and purity of the coin are also mentioned on the pack, and buyers should carefully read this information. Another thing that is to be kept in mind while selling and buying gold coins is to check latest gold rates from a reliable source.

Conclusion

At the end, we have a clear answer to the question that are gold coins a good investment? Yes, as you get high returns without any hardships; investment stays safe and it can be cashed at any time you want.

Human beings have been working with gold for thousands of years. One only has to view the creations of the ancient Egyptians, such as the magnificent items found in the tomb of King Tut, to get an appreciation of the supremely high level of expertise that were achieved by the ancients with melting and fashioning this amazing metal.

At what temperature does gold melt?

Interestingly, the fundamentals of melting gold and making items from it are essentially the same today as they were 5,000 to 6,000 years ago when the Sumerians were working with gold. What you need is a heat source high enough to achieve the melting point of gold, which is 1947 degree Fahrenheit, or 1064 Celsius. You also need a vessel or container that can withstand an even higher level of heat so that you have something to contain the gold you are melting.

But you don’t always have to get to temperatures that hot to make gold pliable enough to work with. For example, a common soldering iron can reach a heat level of about 780 F, but this may be enough to soften small amounts or sections of gold just enough so you can shape and work with it – but a soldering iron will never melt gold to a molten state.

Keep in mind that gold is a relatively soft metal. It is easier to hammer, flatten, bend, shape and mold than other metals. The more you heat it the more pliable it becomes. The point is, you don’t always have to melt gold completely to make it easier to work with.

Here’s one video on doing it at home…

One of the best ways to melt gold is with an ordinary acetylene or propane torch which you can buy at any hardware store. For example, let’s say you have a gold bracelet that you want to melt down. Just place the bracelet in a small bowl or container made of a silicon dioxide ceramic. These are also easy to buy from a variety of suppliers.

Now all you need to do is start blasting it with your torch. If you hold the heat on the bracelet long enough – just a few minutes actually – the item will break down to form a white-hot glowing liquid. Liquid gold! You’re now ready to pour it into a mold and start working with it, and shaping it.

Of course, this is all made easier if the original item you are working with is very pure, high-grade gold. Many if not most pieces of jewelry are made of gold combined with other metals. For example, rings and other items are plated with a very thin — almost molecularly thin — layer of gold. The challenge is that if you want to obtain pure gold, you need to find a way to separate one metal from the other.

Separating gold from other metals requires a considerable level of skill and know-how to not only accomplish, but also to manage safely. The process usually involves bathing the metals in certain chemicals that will dissolve those substances you don’t want. A mixture of nitric and hydrochloric acid, called aqua regia, is often used for this. Once the metals are immersed in this acid bath, an electric current is applied to “plate out” or separate the various metals from each other. But as we said, this takes a high level of skill.

Today the interest of working with gold has skyrocketed along with its price, which as of this writing was hovering around $1,700 an ounce. In fact, you can check the latest Gold Silver Prices right here: they’re updated hourly. Many people are eager to extract the tiny amount that can be found in computer circuit boards, for example, and in the wiring of other electronic implements. Whatever the case, when you chose to work with gold, you are continuing a tradition that is almost as ancient as civilization itself.

A metal detector, as the name suggests, is a specialized device that is normally used to uncover the presence of metals that are not readily visible or apparent. There are many types of metal detectors and you may probably have come across the more basic and common metal detectors that are used at security check points.

This type of metal detectors is used to detect the presence of any metal on an individual’s person and they are guaranteed to be able to pick out guns, knives or other dangerous metallic weapons that may be present there.

Besides the metal detectors used at security check points, there are other metal detectors that are designed to be used for purposes of metal prospecting. These are detectors with higher depth of penetration which can be used to detect the presence of metals buried deep under the ground. They are a particular favorite among archeologists and miners. Treasure hunters can find the latest Gold Silver Prices here!

Can Metal Detectors Detect Gold?

For most new miners who have had very little or no previous experience in the use of metal detectors, one of the most commonly asked questions is ‘can metal detectors detect gold?’.

In order to be able to answer the question above satisfactorily, it is important to have a basic or general understanding of how the metals detectors function when they are in use. Basically, a metal detector is designed such that it has circuits that will interact with any conductor present within their range.

The physics behind the interactions in the circuits are not part of the scope of this article and mention will only be given to the fact that whenever these interactions take place, the user of the metal detector is alerted of the same either through sound alerts or some visual indicators so that they know that a metal is present. It is important to note that it is the conductivity of the metals that gives them away. Due to the fact that different metals have different conductivities, it is possible to filter out the kind of metals you want the device to detect by setting the range of metal conductivities that are allowed to interact with the circuits of the metal detectors.

The main question that now needs to be answered at this point is how to best use a metal detector to detect the presence of gold. The first tip in using your metal detector to detect the presence of gold is to set the discriminator scale on your device as close as possible to the conductivity of gold.

It would be a good idea to get a powerful metal detector with an accurate indicator since there are many metals and alloys whose conductivity is close to that of gold and filtering them out would otherwise be very difficult. Another tip is to use a metal detector that has efficient removal of false signals resulting from ground noise.

From the foregoing discussion, it should be clear to all who are looking for answers to the question, ‘can metal detectors detect Gold?’ that it is indeed possible to use the devices to detect gold. However, the devices cannot be used to detect gold exclusively and either trash metal or ground noise will most likely also be detected.