A question we receive all the time is: "Is there really gold in Ohio?". The short answer to this is YES! Our gold in Ohio is not native gold. It is placer gold, deposited thousands of years ago by three main sheets of ice during the ice age.
The best known and most productive localities have been along Stonelick Creek and Brushy Fork, north of Owensville, Clermont County, and north of Bellville, Richland County. It is probable that there are many other equally productive localities in the glaciated portion of the state.
Gold also will concentrate at the upstream end of gravel bars, on the inside bend of meanders, or behind large boulders.
Gold, found in its natural state from ancient times to today, is prized above all other metals for its warm color, low hardness, high strength, and extreme resistance to corrosion. No natural acids can corrode or discolor it. It is one of the heaviest metals, having a specific gravity of 19.3, meaning it is 19.3 times heavier than an equal volume of water. Quartz with which gold is usually found has a sp.g of 2.64, which is the reason gold can be so easily separated by panning and other methods. Ninty-nine percent of gold mined today is in small pieces that cannot be seen with the naked eye. Nuggets of gold are exceedingly rare, and are now found in very small quantities, most being only a few grains in size. Because of this increasing rarity vintage gold jewelry especially vintage wedding bands for men and women is highly sought after. Rarer still is leaf gold and crystallized gold, and the rarest form of all is wire gold, usually seen only in museums.
One of gold's most prized properties is it's low hardness of 2.5 and relatively low melting point of 1947 degrees F, which made it easily shaped and worked into intricate designs by craftsmen from the earliest times to the present day.
Since gold is so malleable and ductile it will bend but not break. An ounce of gold can be beaten into an ultra thin translucent sheet about 100 feet square or drawn into a fine wire over 50 miles long. Gold is an excellent conductor of electricity and is widely used in micro electronic circuits.
The purity of gold is measured in Karats, 24 karat being pure, or 12 karat being 50% gold combined with some other metal such as silver, copper or of a combination of other metals. Gold is sometimes rated in terms of fineness, and 24 karat gold would be rated as 1000 fine.
24 karat gold is pure. 12 karat gold is 50% pure. Melting Point: 1337.73K 1064.58°C 1948.24°F
Worldwide the Troy standard is used for measuring the weight of gold.
1 Troy pound = 12 Troy ounces
1 Troy ounce = 20 Pennyweights = 480 Grains = 31.1 grams The dimensions of a Ton of pure Gold is only a 14.2 inch cube.
