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Gold coins as currency

Why use Gold as a coin i.e. money?

There are several important reasons:

• Gold has a higher density than most metals, making it difficult to counterfeit and therefore fake gold coins are easy to identify.
• Gold can be divided into smaller pieces without losing value i.e. if you take an Ounce of Gold and ‘break’ it up into four equal parts, the value still remains the same i.e. the four parts still make up an Ounce of Gold.
• Gold is easy to transport and store and has a high value to weight ratio. A King (or pirate) would only need a small chest to store his Kingdom’s wealth (or booty).

Gold coins History

Gold coins have been around for thousands of years, and can be traced back to at least the 6^th Century BC. Gold was used as commerce even further back than that, during the Bronze Age.

King Croesus of Lydia is generally credited with the introduction of Gold coins, but as with many aspects of history, this is a disputed fact. There are indications that the ancient Chinese may have pre-dated the Lydian King.

However, one cannot dispute the fact that Gold coins have been intimately entwined with human society for a very long time.

Through the ages Gold coins took on various shapes and sizes and were used extensively by the Roman Empire and then very extensively during the middle ages, until finally we now have Gold coins like Krugerrands and American Eagles.

Practically every country today produces their own Gold coins, whether for monetary, investment or collection purposes.

Persian Daric 490 BC

Gold coin types

As we are a South African company, we trade in South African Gold coins i.e. Krugerrands and Natura Gold coins.

Krugerrands and Natura Gold coins differ greatly as detailed in the table below.

- by Paul B Gibson

- 10 August 2013