Historically, the story has always been that gold is “real money”, the ultimate store of value, the ultimate inflation hedge investment – but that, unlike its little sister, silver, there has been little practical demand for gold, outside of the jewelry market. While the metallic characteristics of gold are similar to those of silver in many ways, it hasn’t enjoyed the widespread industrial usage that silver has – basically, just because gold is so much more expensive to use than silver. Therefore, in many applications where gold could be used, silver is used instead, because using silver is more cost-efficient.

But that appears to be changing now, as advancing technology is finding new uses for gold and applications where the unique properties of gold make it the only possible choice. Research is discovering significant potential applications for gold in a variety of market sectors, including health care, quantum computing, and space technology.

Gold has always held a certain allure, unlike that of any other naturally occurring material in existence. Now, the uncovering of previously unimagined uses for “the magic metal” is only increasing the almost mystical attraction that gold holds for investors.

Gold – the Magical Precious Metal

The magic of gold is historical, perennial, and seemingly everlasting. The historical record shows that people started adorning themselves with gold jewelry long before they got around to mundane things such as developing agriculture or building cities as permanent settlements.

Mankind’s fascination with gold has led to it being strongly associated with beauty and purity throughout human history. Still today, something that’s considered to be as good as it can get is referred to as being “solid gold”. The statuettes handed out at the Academy Awards (and many other prestigious awards as well) are made of bronze, but get their shine from being overlaid in 24-karat gold. The incredible beauty of Solomon’s Temple stemmed from the fact that nearly every piece of it was either solid gold or silver, or cedar overlaid with pure gold or silver. And when Solomon, or any other ancient ruler, was paid tribute by neighboring nations, those payments were made in the form of gold.

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Moreover, throughout the centuries, money, in the form of coinage, all over the world, has been minted in gold and silver. Pirates sought to capture Spanish ships loaded with gold doubloons (coins minted with approximately 7 grams of gold that, at the time, had a practical value of about $4…7 grams of gold today is worth, well, quite a bit more). Up until President Franklin D. Roosevelt decided to perpetrate the great gold heist, confiscating all the privately held gold of US citizens – and then immediately revaluing it at a price that was approximately 40% more than people had been paid for their gold by the government - the most favored coin to have in your pocket was “a $20 gold piece” (also known as a “double eagle”, referencing the fact that its value was twice that of the $10 Gold Eagle coin).

The Saint-Gaudens $20 Double Eagle, only minted from 1907-1933, is probably still the most sought-after collectible gold coin. (Historical trivia tidbits: Although the one-ounce Saint-Gaudens American Gold Eagles that are currently produced by the US Mint each year are 99.99% pure gold, the original coins were made of 90% gold and 10% copper. Some 1933 Saint-Gaudens Double Eagles – the last year of minting, prior to the reproductions that started in 1986 – that are in the most pristine condition sell for millions of dollars in the world of coin collectors. It’s actually, technically, still illegal for US citizens to possess a 1933 Saint-Gaudens Double Eagle, because FDR’s gold confiscation act meant that the 1933 mintings of the coin were never officially released into circulation as legal tender.)

The unique properties of gold have added to our fascination with it. Unlike some metals, it doesn’t combine with other metals – that characteristic makes it easier to identify (the existence of “fool’s gold” notwithstanding). Gold is astonishingly malleable and ductile (meaning that it can easily be reshaped or drawn out into wires or filaments, without breaking). Just a single ounce of gold can be hammered out into incredibly thin sheets of metal that can measure as large as a whopping 300 square feet. That’s one reason that the thin, shimmering sheets of gold known as “gold leaf” have long adorned palaces, temples, and the ultra-mansions of the ultra-wealthy all around the world. Nothing says “money” quite like the bright shine of gold.

The process of “gold beating”, hammering gold into thin sheets, has remained relatively unchanged since the very first times that it was used to make a temple dome glimmer in the sunlight so that it could be seen, and admired, from many miles away. Ultra-thin sheets of gold overlay can be created to produce a translucent effect that enables gold to add a unique bluish-green tint to its natural strong reflection of red and yellow light.

Alternatively to hammering it down into sheets that are barely one atom in thickness, you can stretch one ounce of gold out into the form of a 50-mile-long piece of wire.

The Interesting Physical and Chemical Properties of Gold

Gold has an interesting array of physical and chemical properties. For instance, it is insoluble in nitric acid. This fact forms the basis of a test that is still commonly used to detect the presence of gold in certain items, such as jewelry – a test that’s typically referred to as “the acid test”. However, gold can be dissolved in mercury to create amalgam alloys – such alloys are commonly used in dentistry applications.

No other substance is as durable as gold – not even diamonds. Gold is virtually indestructible – which is why every ounce of gold, even down to the smallest specks of gold dust, that has ever been mined still exists. That property of “immortality” makes gold unique, as compared to all other naturally occurring materials.

Gold is highly resistant to oxidative corrosion, and doesn’t normally react with many other chemicals. These properties have made gold an ideal substance to utilize in fields such as dentistry and electronics. It possesses two additional properties that make it very suitable for use in electronics and other technological applications:

1. Gold is an excellent conductor of heat
2. It’s also an excellent conductor of electricity

Gold’s high resistance to tarnishing and corrosion are a primary reason – along with its lustrous beauty – for its perennial popularity in the arenas of jewelry and coin minting. (It helps to reduce minting costs if the coins you produce hold up well and, therefore, last a very long time before they need to be removed from circulation and replaced with new coins.) Only a very few and relatively rare chemical substances – such as cyanide – threaten the integrity of gold products.

Trivia note – the origin of gold: How did gold come into existence? Where did it come from? We know how oil got here – a bunch of dinosaurs dropped dead and, over time, pressure made their remains become big, underground globs of oil (something like that anyway). But no one knows precisely how gold came to be. There are some recent theories about supernovas and collisions of neutron stars (whatever that is), but the details are a bit sketchy. The ancient Aztecs and Incas – civilizations that, obviously, had a serious love affair with gold – told us that gold is tears shed by the sun. Hmm…given these supernova theories, maybe they weren’t too far off.

Gold’s Bright, Shiny Future – in Outer Space!

Rapid technological advances have led to the uncovering of a number of new and unique uses for gold. One potentially critically important application for gold apparently lies in…outer space! At least, that’s what we hear from some experiments conducted by the US Department of Energy's National Accelerator Laboratory.

It turns out that gold is…(wait for it)…laser repellent! The National Accelerator lab has, reportedly, stumbled across the fact that gold has an even more astonishing superpower, in addition to its superpower of being extremely resistant to corrosion. Namely, it, apparently, has a downright miraculous ability to withstand a laser attack. This discovery unveils a new use for gold that I think we can safely conclude was heretofore completely unimagined. In fact, I’m wondering how in the world the National Accelerator Laboratory happened to stumble across this discovery of gold as potential laser attack defense material. I mean, what are they smoking in that lab that led to some guy saying, “Hey, why don’t we fire a laser gun at some gold bars and see what happens? Uhh…anybody got any gold bars?”?

Envision this: Either a multi-billion dollar orbiting space station or a multi-billion dollar orbiting communications satellite. Now add to your vision a micro-thin layer of gold sheeting covering the exterior of the whole thing. (For one thing, in the non-polluted “air” of space, imagine how brightly that gold overlay will shine when the sun hits it.) And now, finally, imagine that we didn’t just do that gold overlay to pretty everything up. No, instead, it turns out to be a real, practical defense mechanism against the most frequently talked about, “Star Wars” kind of space weapon – lasers!

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It might sound a little crazy, but apparently – again, according to our friends at the Department of Energy (no doubt likely aided, at least in part, by some of the eggheads at NASA) – this is a real, practical measure that could be taken to enhance security for a variety of space-based operations. Satellites, and space stations and crafts that are essential in the modern world of communications and deep-space scientific research, could all be protected on their journeys through the galaxy with just a relatively inexpensive (relative to the cost of satellites and space stations anyway) “gold leaf” overlay.

It gets even more amazing. Gold isn’t just resistant to laser attacks. Oh, no – it’s even better – when you fire a laser at a sheet of gold armor, the gold doesn’t just manage to repel the attack. It actually gets stronger! The laser fire strengthens the gold armor plating. Thus, more and more laser fire directed at a gold-plated satellite, or space station, or whatever, would reinforce the effectiveness of the gold shield, rather than weaken it. (So, that property of gold would overcome one of the problems that frequently afflicted the crew of the USS Enterprise on “Star Trek” – the fact that the ship’s protective shields were weakened by each successive attack – so that, eventually, you always had Scotty yelling up from Engineering that the shields wouldn’t hold out much longer.)

A protective covering of gold would make the statement, “What doesn’t kill us, makes us stronger”, a very practical truth. Space stations, although seemingly ill-prepared for any kind of attack, could, in fact, be surprisingly unassailable fortresses.

This discovery of gold’s laser-repellent properties could have far-reaching effects on the future of space flights and orbiting stations, in fact, on the whole strategy of operations in space.

So, in short, if James Bond’s SPECTRE nemesis, Ernst Stavro Blofeld, ever got his hands on a laser weapon, like he did in the movie, “Diamonds are Forever”, we could use the gold hoard of James Bond’s other nemesis, Goldfinger, to protect ourselves. How’s that for some irony? 😊

Other New and Future Applications for Gold

Gold already has a myriad of diverse practical applications. Thanks to its properties of superior conductivity and resistance to corrosion, it is widely used in key components in electronics, such as switches, connectors, and relays. I even read an article recently that outlined how you could actually earn an income (IF you’re willing to do a whole lot of labor-intensive work) by “mining” gold from discarded computers.

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Like silver, medical applications for gold are an area that continues to expand. Gold compounds that are referred to as “salts” are being increasingly used in treatment therapies for diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis. In addition, there is a lot of research being conducted, in numerous medical research centers across the globe, into the viability of using gold compounds to treat major disease threats such as dementia, Parkinson’s disease, and even cancer.

Gold and Quantum Computing

As technology advances at a dizzying pace, the potential applications of gold in providing security for communication satellites and space stations aren’t the only surprising discovery regarding gold’s “magic” properties. One that research scientists have labeled “ground breaking” is the discovery that gold can evidence superconductivity at room temperatures and ambient pressures.

What are known as “gold atom chains” are the source of this remarkable discovery that could potentially revolutionize superconductivity theory. Scientists have found that when gold is shaped into uni-dimensional chains of atoms, it has absolutely zero electrical resistance in an atmosphere of ambient pressure at room temperatures. That zero resistance property was previously only known to be exhibited by materials that have been cooled to extremely low temperatures.

Gold’s ability to exhibit such a zero resistance capability at room temperature could have major implications in the fields of energy storage and energy transmission. It opens up possibilities that, prior to this discovery, weren’t even considered to be possibilities – such as the possibility of large power grids operating without experiencing any loss of electricity. You’re talking there about a quantum leap forward in electronic operational efficiency.

Speaking of quantum leaps, possible applications of gold atom chains also extend into the area of quantum computing. Specifically, it’s possible that gold atom chains could make ideal qubits – the fundamental building blocks of quantum computing.

Of course, much of this remains theoretical for the moment. For the time being, gold atom chains have only been created under very specific and highly controlled laboratory conditions. However, that doesn’t dampen the fact that atomic-scale engineering with gold clearly offers pathways to discovering important new properties of gold and other materials that could have significant impacts in nanotechnology and other technology fields.

New Uses for Gold Increase its Value - Conclusion

I’m trying to think of something to say here that’s a little less cliché than, “Gold’s future sure looks BRIGHT”. (Ugh.)

From an unbelievable (but true!) level of malleability that enables less-than-paper-thin sheets of gold to adorn palaces and churches alike with a bright shine that shouts, “Money!”, to newly discovered applications in medical labs and outer space, the practical uses for gold continue to expand. Apparently, even quantum computing can rely on gold to provide it with quantum leaps forward.

Gold’s unique and mysterious qualities help to enable it to maintain its position in our minds as a seemingly magical metal, endowed with all kinds of unparalleled superpowers.

“The desire for gold,” said the famous Wall Street trader, Gerald Loeb, “is the most universal and deeply rooted commercial instinct of the human race.” Gold’s unique characteristics, such as its indestructibility, have led to it garnering association with both royalty and divinity down through the pages of history. But those characteristics propel gold far beyond being just a rare, prized, extremely attractive precious metal – they make it a key element at the forefront of technological innovation.

(I want to thank The Silver Academy for providing much of the information contained in this article on current and potential future uses of gold. While the Academy’s focus is, obviously, on silver, it also provides a lot of helpful, expert information related to the gold market.)

• J.B. Maverick

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Sources:

https://thesilverindustry.substack.com/p/gold-price-scandal-unmasking-the

https://moneyweek.com/investments/gold/our-primal-instinct-for-gold

https://moneyweek.com/investments/commodities/gold-magic-powers

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