How gold was formed, and where
Ordinary stars fuse light elements into heavier ones and stop at iron, because fusing anything heavier consumes energy instead of releasing it. Everything above iron on the periodic table, gold included, needs an environment extreme enough to force the reaction: the collapse and explosion of a massive star, or the collision of two neutron stars. In those moments atomic nuclei are flooded with neutrons and build up into the heavy elements in seconds.
That material scattered into space, mixed into the cloud that became our solar system, and was there in the rock from which Earth assembled. So the gold in a wedding ring is older than the planet it was mined from, by a long way.
Why there is so little gold near the surface
There is a great deal of gold on Earth. Almost none of it is reachable. While the young planet was still molten, dense metals sank toward the centre, and gold, being both dense and chemically attracted to iron, went with them. The overwhelming majority of Earth's gold is locked in the core and will never be recovered by anyone.
The gold we can mine sits in the crust largely because of what came afterwards: a long bombardment of asteroids and meteorites striking the surface after it had solidified, delivering fresh metal that never had the chance to sink. Later, hot fluids moving through rock concentrated that scattered metal into veins and, eroded out of those veins, into the river deposits that people first learned to pan.
When was gold first discovered, and by whom?
There is no discoverer and no date for when gold was first discovered, and any source giving you one is inventing it. Gold occurs in nature as visible metal rather than as an ore needing smelting, so it did not need to be discovered in the way iron or aluminium did. People found bright soft yellow pieces in streambeds and began working them, independently, in many places.
What we can date is the oldest surviving worked gold. The graves at Varna, on the Black Sea coast of what is now Bulgaria, contain worked gold objects from roughly six and a half thousand years ago, which makes them the earliest substantial gold treasure known. Egyptian, Mesopotamian and South American traditions developed their own goldsmithing separately. The fair summary is that gold has been worked for as long as there has been metalworking at all.
Is gold metallic, and is it magnetic?
Gold is a metal in the fullest sense: an element, atomic number 79, dense, an excellent conductor of heat and electricity, and the most malleable metal known, which is why it can be beaten into leaf thin enough to see through.
It is not magnetic. A magnet will not attract solid gold, and that is genuinely useful at home: if a piece jumps to a magnet, something inside it is not gold. The reverse does not hold, because plenty of non magnetic metals are used to fake gold, so no reaction proves nothing on its own.
Gold also does not rust or tarnish. It is one of the least reactive elements, which is why coins pulled from shipwrecks after centuries come up bright while everything around them has corroded away. If a gold coloured item is tarnishing, greening or leaving a mark on skin, the gold is a coating over something else. Our gold facts page covers the practical properties and how testing works.
What this means when you sell
Because gold cannot be manufactured and does not degrade, what we buy is measured rather than judged: purity by test, weight by certified scale, value against a live market. There is no opinion in it, which is why we run the whole process in front of you. You can watch the live market on our gold price page before you come in.
Any karat, broken, tangled or unmarked: tested and weighed in front of you against the live market, paid the same day. Call (732) 483-4145 or walk in.
Get your gold tested at any of our 8 storesGold origin FAQs
How was gold formed?
In the deaths and collisions of stars. Ordinary stellar fusion stops at iron, so heavier elements including gold need the extreme neutron flood of a supernova or a neutron star collision. That material was already in the cloud from which the solar system formed, so gold on Earth is older than Earth.
Why is gold so rare near the surface?
Most of Earth gold sank to the core while the planet was molten, because gold is dense and chemically drawn to iron. The gold we can mine was largely delivered by asteroid bombardment after the surface solidified, then concentrated into veins by hot fluids moving through rock.
When was gold discovered and by whom?
There is no single discoverer or date. Gold occurs as visible native metal, so people found and worked it independently in many places. The oldest substantial worked gold known comes from the graves at Varna in present day Bulgaria, roughly six and a half thousand years old.
Is gold magnetic?
No. A magnet will not attract solid gold, so an item that jumps to a magnet contains something that is not gold. The reverse does not hold: many non magnetic metals are used to imitate gold, so no reaction on its own proves nothing.
Can gold rust or tarnish?
No. Gold is among the least reactive elements, which is why coins recovered from shipwrecks come up bright after centuries. A gold coloured item that tarnishes, greens or marks the skin is plated over another metal.