Gold at ₹1 lakh: Where did it come from? | OPEN Magazine special

IN 2017, SCIENTISTS closely studied a rare phenomenon that they believed had finally cracked one of the most enduring mysteries on Earth: the origin of element No 79 on the Periodic Table: Au or Gold. Designed in 1869 by Russian chemist Dmitry Ivanovich Mendeleev, the Periodic Table classifies all chemical elements according to their atomic number and chemical properties.

Gold has been intertwined with most of human history; it has witnessed ancient civilisations fall and new ones rise, funded wars, triggered widespread ecological destruction in its search; and it has been treasured for its exchange value, cultural significance, religious symbolism and lustrous beauty—that is, for its incredible status.

The Incas believed gold was the tears of the sun god and the Egyptians associated it with the god Ra and gilded their dead rich, pharaohs and nobles, in gold to symbolise immortality. For Homer, in the Iliad and the Odyssey, gold was wealth for humans and the sign of the immortals.

In the middle of the 6th century BCE, King Croesus of Lydia minted the world’s first gold coin. Known as a stater or Croeseid, this coin marked a key turning point in the history of financial systems. This was the beginning of the gold standard.

But the first gold bank came only in 13th-century Europe, when explorers and long-distance travellers would deposit their gold in the banks before setting off on their journey. This was used to both raise finances against the gold for the trip and as insurance against any disaster.

In India, gold has been linked with the goddess of prosperity and good fortune, Laxmi. But the mystery of how gold, among the rarest of elements on Earth, actually formed remained unsolved.

Excerpts from "Gold's Own Country," by PR Ramesh, published in OPEN Magazine on 25 April 2025. Read the full article here: https://openthemagazine.com/feature/golds-own-country-2/