The "Fool's Gold" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Working in the garden when I saw a glimmer of light coming from the flower bed.  Looked and looked, but couldn't find it again.  Reminded me of my youth when my friends and I used to look for what we called monkey gold.  And, I'm wondering how many people in the mid-19th century might have seen the same thing when they became part of the California Gold Rush which officially began in January of 1848.  Near the base of the the Sierra Nevada Mountains, a carpenter by the name of James Marshall was working on building a water-powered sawmill when he happened upon a few flakes of gold trailing down the American River.  

A real gold nugget. Those aren't my hands!

That happened to be the first gold harvested in the Gold Rush.  Wasn't long before prospectors realized that there really was gold in them 'thar hills.  For those that could find gold, it was an instant pathway out of poverty into the world of wealth and fortune.  Made for some pretty good western movies and TV shows.  In no time nearly 75% of males living in San Francisco were heading for the gold mines and by June of that year there were over 4,000 miners in the area.  The owner of the property were Mr. Marshall had found the gold, a gentleman by the name of John Sutter, had his property overrun, destroyed and vandalized by so many that he went bankrupt.  In no time at all prospectors from Oregon, Mexico, Chile, Peru and China found their way to California.  The population of California grew from 800 to over 100,000 within a year.  

The USA official 33 cent stamp.

Might have been good for the people who ran restaurants and grocery shops, but those whose land was destroyed weren't happy.  Then in 1849, crime, violence and theft were common throughout the area as the "forty-niners" continued to arrive.  Then, the gold began to dry up by 1850, but it didn't stop the gold-diggers from still heading to California.  By 1855 the population had swelled to 300,000.  Historians believe that about $2 billion was mined during the Gold Rush.  At its peak in 1852 about $81 million was pulled from the earth.  Countless miners died on their journey to California as well as died in the mines.  Like all big discoveries throughout history, the California Rush brought both prosperity and hardship.  Gold is a precious metal much the same as silver and platinum since it is found in nature at a rarer frequency than more common metals.  

smaller gold nuggets

Precious metals all feature three core properties:  Rarity, Luster and Ducile or the metal's mallea- bility.  The more pure the metal, the higher the karat rating it receives.  The 24 karat rating is the highest which means it is the purest and has no filler metals.  There are 10 of these precious metals that are found on Earth.  Many of them are linked to world currencies which means they can be used to barter for goods or services.  Now, it perhaps was the filler metals that my friends and I looked for when we were younger.  In the alley behind my house we often would find a stone with a shiny piece of gold in it.  Mom and dad would tell me it was called Monkey Gold.  So why is it called that instead of regular gold?  Well, monkey or fool's gold is really pyrite.  Pyrite just glistens instead of shines.  

A piece of monkey gold

I'm not quite sure what the difference is, but someone can tell!  Pyrite is also not as hard as gold and you can find out by taking a piece of copper and scratch it with both.  Pyrite has sharp edges and will scratch the copper more than gold.  Also, gold leaves a pure yellow residue while pyrite leaves a greenish-black powdery residue when rubbed against white porcelain.  Finally the pyrite has sharp edges while gold is rounded on the edges.  The Monkey gold is much more angular.  Well needless to say, all the gold I found was pyrite or I wouldn't be sitting here typing this story.  I'd have someone else type it while I dictated it!  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.