Stratum.black
Gold — Hieracium argenteum Fr. (NHMUK BM016132820)
Hieracium argenteum Fr. (NHMUK BM016132820) — © The Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London, Natural History Museum (London) Data Portal, CC BY 4.0

Mineral · Native elements

Gold

Au

Native gold as crystallised specimens from the Eagle's Nest and Colorado Quartz mines (California), Round Mountain (Nevada), Venezuela and Australia is the most valuable class of mineral specimen, priced far above bullion. Leaf, wire and octahedral gold on quartz are the desirable forms; nuggets are valued by weight and shape. Malleability, extreme weight and the absence of tarnish separate it from pyrite and chalcopyrite.

FormulaAu
IMA statusgrandfathered
Crystal systemCubic
Mohs hardness2.5–3
GroupNative elements
Type localityNone (known since antiquity)
StreakGolden yellow
Specific gravity19.3
Reference listIMA List of Minerals (RRUFF) — verify formula and status against the current list

Fakes and treatments

Gold specimens are faked by gilding pyrite or by casting; leaf gold is sometimes glued to quartz. Buy with a specific-gravity test or from a dealer who guarantees it.

Photographs

Gold — Myriophyllum rubricaule Valk. & Duist., ISOTYPE (NHMUK BM015154403)
Myriophyllum rubricaule Valk. & Duist., ISOTYPE (NHMUK BM015154403) — © The Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London, Natural History Museum (London) Data Portal, CC BY 4.0

Elsewhere

Cite this article

Stratum Study. "Gold" (Mineral). Stratum Study pack 2026.09, as of 2026-09-19. https://stratum.black/study/minerals/gold. Accessed 2026-09-20.

BibTeX · CSL-JSON

@misc{stratum-gold,
  title        = {Gold},
  author       = {{Stratum Study}},
  howpublished = {\url{https://stratum.black/study/minerals/gold}},
  year         = {2026},
  note         = {Mineral article, Stratum Study pack 2026.09, as of 2026-09-19; sources: stratum, wikidata, nhm. Accessed 2026-09-20.}
}

Citations carry the pack version and the article's as-of date so they resolve to the same text later. The facts themselves belong to the sources listed below; cite those for the science.