What is the worst form of gold?

adamlaneus

I've got to say 'dental bullion'.

I've seen these little, heavy, dense chunks of gold that were used as tooth fillings.

To me, it's creepy, filthy, ugly. Dental gold invokes some dark thoughts for me; not because I have experienced anything bad, but probably because I have seen too many movies.


A question borne out of a depressed mood.

mhammerman

Nah, that story about getting gold waste out of the sewers in India...that's got your dental gold lapped.
Yummy gold

PerryHall

The Swiss minted 20 fr gold coins using nazi gold including gold stolen from the Jews. These coins were backdated to before WWII to hide their source.

gecko109

<< <i>The Swiss minted 20 fr gold coins using nazi gold including gold stolen from the Jews. These coins were backdated to before WWII to hide their source. >>




My collection of Degussa gold bars might also contain stolen "Jew gold".

MoneyLA

Is this a trick question, because gold in any form is gold. AU is AU whether its in your teeth, in a ring, in a coin, or applied to art or covers a cake.

adamlaneus

<< <i>Is this a trick question, because gold in any form is gold. AU is AU whether its in your teeth, in a ring, in a coin, or applied to art or covers a cake. >>



I do not agree. This is a very deconstructionist attitude. Atoms are atoms. Well, in a sense I agree.

But let me count the ways I disagree.

I'm talking about the real world, where things are complex.
Gold, formed into a horrible, distasteful work of art is...horrible and distasteful.

The substance is less important than the form the substance takes.

Dental gold bothers me. I would much rather see it melted down, refined and recycled into something more presentable.

Just thinking about the Nazi era gives me the creeps. It's far scarier than most folks realize, I think. Heck, indoctrinated Nazi psychiatrists even had a drug which induced horror!

All bullion in a sense is an intermediate form, just waiting to be melted down and recycled into something useful like jewelry.

Oh man, I can't go on. Too cynical today.

Cladiator

Likes and dislikes are extremely personal and up to the individual to decide upon. That being said, I think disliking any particular gold for social, political or "creepiness" doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. If your argument is that gold that belonged to a person of the Jewish faith and was confiscated by the Nazi party is somehow tainted think back to before that. That very same gold owned by the Jew and stolen by the Nazi was some one else's gold for a long time before. Who knows, it could have been Roman gold or Greek gold or Persian gold or Egyptian gold or maybe it was just plain mother Earth's gold. Long before any gold was used in someones mouth it was used in other forms or sitting raw in the Earth for millenia. The dental and holocaust gold represents a mere fraction of the life of the actual pieces of gold. I don't dislike any molecules of gold simply because of what one person decided to do with it for a short period of time.

adamlaneus

Nazi Germany is not a good topic to introduce into a conversation, as it pollutes everything and distracts from the topic.
How about Liberian gold? Tokens which are little more than 'gold blood diamonds'.

Naw. That isn't what spurred me to start this thread.
It's not about politics or history or social issues. To me, it's about death.


What spurred me is a few teeth with gold fillings in a collection of one of my grandparents.
Teeth with gold. Ick. The memories it stirs are of death.
I want to collect teeth with gold about as much as I want to collect the remains of salted slugs.
When I consider this form of gold relative to all of the other forms of gold...it makes me ill.

Today is the day for me to feel ill, I guess.

My favorite form of gold bullion is a nice coin from the mint that was carefully struck and fussed over.

1jester

Every time I think of gold fillings I can't help but bring to mind the soldier in The Thin Red Line who was removing it from the Japanese soldiers. It is creepy, I agree.

But Cladiator does have a good point.

Weiss

I started a thread about dental gold a few months(?) back.

We Americans have a romantic view of gold from our gold rushes.

Gold from the mouths of Jews, like most European gold, probably came from forced labor of one type or another. Like Spanish or Portuguese forced Indian labor in south and central America.

I like my dental gold. It's made of gold, silver, and palladium .(Au 77%; Pd 1%; Ag 13.1%). I specifically asked for a gold crown instead of porcelain. I can see why people wouldn't like dead people's teeth. But the last circulating gold coins from this country were made in the 1920s. So virtually all American gold coins are dead people's gold.

Cladiator

<< <i>My favorite form of gold bullion is a nice coin from the mint that was carefully struck and fussed over. >>

Ever stop and think that the gold in those nice mint produced coins was once likely in someones mouth as dental gold or in some Nazi vault or stolen gold in the caufers of Emporer Nero, etc... ?

adamlaneus

<< <i>

<< <i>My favorite form of gold bullion is a nice coin from the mint that was carefully struck and fussed over. >>

Ever stop and think that the gold in those nice mint produced coins was once likely in someones mouth as dental gold or in some Nazi vault or stolen gold in the caufers of Emporer Nero, etc... ? >>



Yes, of course. One of the amazing properties of gold is how it cannot be destroyed. Or rather how it resists chemical attack and really wants to stay a metal. Most other metals are perfectly happy turning back into a rock. Sure, i've wondered where it comes from, and sure, some of it comes from all of the sources you mention.

But that does not bother me.

What bothers me is looking into a little box of my grandfathers belongings and seeing some teeth.
How much does it weigh? What is the purity? They will have to smash the whole thing to get at the gold.
I guess it was physically functional at the time. The concept of gold fillings is an interesting one.
But once the utility is over... I've always felt uneasy about keeping gold filled teeth. Damn movies.

Cladiator

Ok I hear ya. Teeth in a box would bother me too. If it were just the fillings in a box I'd not have any issues but the teeth are gross. Bite the bullet (pun intended) and smash the teeth up with a hammer, toss the fragments and keep the metals. Then you won't have to look at the teeth anymore.

trozau

Paper gold.

PerryHall

The worst form of gold is a counterfeit gold coin that you just bought for your collection.

zeebob

Gold nuggets seem to be a pretty bad form of gold. I had a bunch of these from my mineral collecting days. Hauled them into my local B&M and walked out with less than 1/2 what I thought I'd get.

The owner of the B&M explained that they had to just guess at the gold content so they always guess a low percentage.

No more nuggets for me. Dental gold? Icky. I'm sticking with coins.

Norseman88

Fool's Gold aka iron pyrite.

ttown

Somebody elses Gold?

Cladiator

MoneyLA

any of you remember the crowds under that building in NYC back in the 1960s (I think) when they were applying the gold leaf to the building... and as the sheets of gold leaf fell the pedestrians underneath scurried to pick them up? I think it was the Pan Am building -- before name was changed to NY LIfe Bldg -- but not sure.

anyway, the story stuck in my mind.

I was probably about 12 years old when that happened.

derryb

<< <i>I've got to say 'dental bullion'.

I've seen these little, heavy, dense chunks of gold that were used as tooth fillings.

To me, it's creepy, filthy, ugly. Dental gold invokes some dark thoughts for me; not because I have experienced anything bad, but probably because I have seen too many movies.


A question borne out of a depressed mood. >>



Adam, don't knock it till you tried it!