What If? What if gold was really common?

SergeantBrother

Notorious Member
What if gold was one of the most common elements on Earth. So common that the ground is littered with gold nuggets and getting gold would be no more difficult than common stones. Gold is effectively free. How would this affect the world if it happened now? How would this affect the world if it had always been the case? What would we use gold for if it were almost free?
 

What's the sitch?

Well-known member
I think it's a better conductor than what we use? Just that its currently expensive and reserved for only certain things because of that.

So maybe cheaper electricity related things? Less break downs of equipment and such.
 

S'task

Renegade Philosopher
Administrator
Staff Member
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Honestly, it doesn't change much until we get to electricity, though gold plated metal objects would be much more common due to gold's anti-corrosive nature. Mirrors also might have been cheaper in the past as gold makes a decent mirror and is easy to work and polish.

Once we get electricity though? We'd use gold in pretty much everywhere save for when we absolutely positively MUST minimize electrical resistance (where we'd still use silver, likely plated with gold to prevent rust). Gold is a better conductor than copper and aluminum, and since it never oxidizes or corrodes it's superior to both those metals. What this ALSO means is that a lot of mid-20th century electrical fires are just outright prevented, as they were caused by aluminum wiring*.

Silver and Platinum are likely the primary metals used to base currency off of, and gold obviously wouldn't have any cultural connotation of wealth, but... otherwise, yeah, I don't think a huge amount changes.

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* While aluminum is fairly conductive, aluminum oxide is considerably less, so much so that when aluminum wires oxidate the new resistance from of the aluminum oxide creates enough heat to eventual catch wood and such on FIRE. This is why aluminum wiring is now pretty much universally banned and replaced as soon as it is found. Copper oxide and silver oxide don't have as much drop off, and so generally won't cause any major problems.
 

SergeantBrother

Notorious Member
I think that there are a tremendous number of uses being overlooked. Gold would be far more common than any metal historically and would be easier to work than most too. Humanity may well develop metal working thousands of years earlier as cave men learn to work gold into jewelry or even tools. Of course, gold is a very soft metal, but it's not exactly play-doh, it can be used for tools. We might see gold knives, hammers perhaps, and who knows what else. Not many kinds of weapons or armor would be gold, because of its weight and softness, but I wouldn't be surprised if ancient people would use gold arrow heads or spear points, especially for hunting or before armor became common. Sling bullets would surely be gold. Maybe even iron and steel weapons and armor would be gold plated to reduce rusting.

Eating utensils will like be make of gold - spoons, forks, knives, bowls, pots and pans. Gold melts at just under 2000°F and so would be in no danger of melting from standard cooking and would be easy to clean and virtually resistant to corrosion.

Because gold resists corrosion, people would end up coating all sorts of things with layers of gold. Thin sheets of gold could be used as roofing tiles, they would last forever.

Gold would make an excellent writing material before the advent of paper. You just use golden sheets and scratch the letters on them with a sharp stone or harder piece of metal. This would be a writing material available to even poor people since gold is so common. It also lasts longer and more examples of ancient writing would exist, more knowledge would be preserved.

When people learn to melt other metals, gold alloys might become common as people mix other metals with gold to make it more sturdy.

Gold could be used for plumbing pipes, maybe the ancient Romans would use gold for these pipes instead of lead.

Most electrical wiring will use gold instead of copper and electronics in general will be cheaper. Gun bullets will probably be made from gold. Soda cans will likely be made from gold along with lots of packaging material - canning technology may be developed earlier with gold cans.

Gold jewelry might be common, though it may actually be so cheap and widely available that people wouldn't want to use gold because it isn't classy enough.
 

Marduk

Well-known member
Moderator
Staff Member
What would be the change in dynamics between a gold bullet and a lead one?
Can make much heavier ones of the same size... If you need to for some reason. For cool armor piercing abilities you still want super dense metals with better mechanical properties, like tungsten or uranium. Golden ammo might be common in the era of round shot though.
 

SergeantBrother

Notorious Member
What would be the change in dynamics between a gold bullet and a lead one?
Gold is denser than lead, 19.3 g/cc as opposed to 11.3 g/cc. That is 70% denser, which is quite a big difference. Gold is slightly more dense than uranium.

A gold bullet of the same size would be 70% heavier and so carry more energy and momentum assuming you achieved the same mussel velocity. A gold bullet of the same weight could be smaller and so a similarly sized bullet could have more powder and so greater energy. In either case, greater density means that the bullet is slowed less by air resistance, because it has greater mass in relation to its surface area.

Gold is harder and stronger than lead. If it hits a soft target, it is less likely to deform, so while it is likely to carry greater energy, it may over-penetrate compared to lead. It would, however, be better at penetrating armor. If we look at the Renaissance when black powder weapon were becoming common on the battlefield, it may be the case that the prevalence of gold bullets might make armor become obsolete faster, as the gold bullets would penetrate plate armor more easily. Gold would be harder to work with than lead though, because it is harder and has a higher melting point.

I'm not quite sure the effects gold would have on a gun barrel compared to lead.
 
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Scottty

Well-known member
Founder
I'm somewhat interested in what effect that much gold might have on the chemistry of life, or on the physical properties of the Earth.

If you just want to go back and time and scatter nuggets all over the surface, that's one thing. But if the mantel or core has a high proportion of gold, that's quite another.
 

SergeantBrother

Notorious Member
I'm somewhat interested in what effect that much gold might have on the chemistry of life, or on the physical properties of the Earth.

If you just want to go back and time and scatter nuggets all over the surface, that's one thing. But if the mantel or core has a high proportion of gold, that's quite another.
That is an interesting question. Gold isn't very chemically reactive, so I don't know that it would have that much affect on chemistry unless it were so common that it got in the way of other chemicals reacting. The Earth's core is mostly iron, but if we had this much gold, I wonder if much of the Earth's core would be made out of gold, which is quite a bit denser than iron. If the Earth's core were mostly gold instead of iron, then the Earth might be quite a bit heavier which might affect the Earth's ability to maintain living things.
 

Laskar

Would you kindly?
Founder
Honestly, it doesn't change much until we get to electricity, though gold plated metal objects would be much more common due to gold's anti-corrosive nature. Mirrors also might have been cheaper in the past as gold makes a decent mirror and is easy to work and polish.

Once we get electricity though? We'd use gold in pretty much everywhere save for when we absolutely positively MUST minimize electrical resistance (where we'd still use silver, likely plated with gold to prevent rust). Gold is a better conductor than copper and aluminum, and since it never oxidizes or corrodes it's superior to both those metals. What this ALSO means is that a lot of mid-20th century electrical fires are just outright prevented, as they were caused by aluminum wiring*.

* While aluminum is fairly conductive, aluminum oxide is considerably less, so much so that when aluminum wires oxidate the new resistance from of the aluminum oxide creates enough heat to eventual catch wood and such on FIRE. This is why aluminum wiring is now pretty much universally banned and replaced as soon as it is found. Copper oxide and silver oxide don't have as much drop off, and so generally won't cause any major problems.
Not really. Aluminum is still really common in power distribution and transmission systems. My copy of the 2014 NEC actually has formulas for properly sizing aluminum wire for new installation. You're just not supposed to use it for residential purposes. You can, but you're not supposed to, and there's no reason to do it anymore because there's no copper shortage like there was in the 1970s.

But yeah. As a budding electrician, I think the biggest boon from gold's abundance would be a much cheaper and slightly more efficient electrical grid. But as a gun nut, I have to say I like the idea of cheap gold bullets. They're heavier, which will improve ballistic coefficient and penetration across the board, and I think gold might be hard enough that you won't need a jacket for most applications.

 

S'task

Renegade Philosopher
Administrator
Staff Member
Founder
Not really. Aluminum is still really common in power distribution and transmission systems. My copy of the 2014 NEC actually has formulas for properly sizing aluminum wire for new installation. You're just not supposed to use it for residential purposes. You can, but you're not supposed to, and there's no reason to do it anymore because there's no copper shortage like there was in the 1970s.
Ahh, I was unaware that it hadn't been banned. Though since building codes vary wildly by jurisdiction, I can imagine in some it has been while in others it hasn't. But yeah, it's best practice to use copper over aluminum, mainly because copper oxide is only slightly more resistant to electricity than pure copper is, thus completely negating the entire issue that makes aluminum wiring potentially dangerous as if it oxides it only represents a small loss, rather than potential fire hazard.
 

Husky_Khan

The Dog Whistler... I mean Whisperer.
Founder
Sotnik
Gold being ultra common could be a neat concept for a fantasy setting.... especially if it's done beyond the general themes of exploitation for said gold that seems to be prevalent in every setting from Candide to Lord of the Rings to Warhammer Fantasy. The lack of value of gold on a wholly different continent beyond its utility as just another common metal to be worked would make for a lot more interesting storylines beyond those basic plot themes as well... though that would be present as well of course.

Plus you could have a variety of societies within the setting where gold is super common. The Lizardmen of Lustria in Warhammer Fantasy are fairly alien in their psychology in comparison to seemingly every other faction and how much they value one golden trinket over another being plundered is something that is beyond the comprehension of most silly warmbloods. And while they are a wealthy civilization, their entire society isn't exactly one that puts the same value of material wealth as nearly every other faction does. They got bigger issues going on in their reptilian brains.

Conversely a Dark Elf civilization within the 2nd Edition Dungeons and Dragons Planescape setting based on Alfheim within the Plane of Ysgard has a fair bit of gold in abundance... but they also have a fair bit of pyrite in abundance as well... and put little value in either beyond how pretty they can work their crafts or jewelry or baubles and sell both indiscriminately, much to the consternation of any who'd dare do business with those folk. This feeling extends to other precious metals and jewels as well.
 

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