As much as we love adorning ourselves in gold, we often forget that its characteristics allow it to be put to many uses. We came across some everyday items that contain gold and wish to share the same with you too.
8+ Everyday Items That Contain Gold
Electronics
In a world dominated by technology, did you know that every electronic appliance contains gold in their processors and connectors? This includes your smartphones, computers, laptops, tablets, televisions, gaming consoles, printers, etc. Even though other options like silver and copper have come up because they are superior conductors and affordable. However, copper doesn’t make a good option whereas silver corrodes quickly.
These metals have come up recently, hence you might find them in new devices to cut down the price of the appliance. However, old devices that are lying around in your house definitely have gold in their processors and connectors.
Smoke Detectors
Those smoke detectors that you casually tossed into the garbage the other day also have gold in them. The Ionized Chamber Smoke Detector (ICSD) are the most commonly used smoke detectors for residential purposes which are very efficient in detecting small fires with less smoke. Am-241 (Americium 241) is a preferred radioactive isotope used as the source material of these smoke detectors. The isotope is processed with gold and then sealed within gold and silver foils.
Used Cars
Yes, used old cars also have gold in them that can fetch you some extra bucks. The entire car is not made of gold but some specific components like the airbag inflation chip, anti-lock brakes, heat insulator, audio system, etc. Some cars are also decorated with gold.
The newer car models are electronic in nature and as discussed above that all electronics contain some quantities of gold, these do too.
Books
Have you seen books with a shiny shimmery golden edge? What appeared to be gold is actually gold. It’s said that this gold is fairly easy to recover as they are heavier than the cellulose used to make paper.
However, these golden edges are not very popular in regular textbooks and are often found in first edition or vintage books. These books have a much higher market value irrespective of the golden edges because of the time stamp it carries.
Coloured Glass
Colour is one of the first things you notice about a glass. Since we are more accustomed to colourless glass, we get latched to coloured glasses very easily. The colour comes by using certain elements including gold. Not all coloured glasses use gold. The intense red colour of Ruby or cranberry glass is obtained by using gold oxide.
CD or DVD
All those born in the 2000s and later aren’t ever aware of CDs or DVDs. These were storage devices that were mostly used to store songs, movies, games, Oss, etc. Some of these were rewritable while others were non-rewritable. It’s said that the high end ones that were used to officially launch some product actually had gold which the cheap ones didn’t.
Embroidered Clothing
Who doesn’t love embroidered clothing? The handwoven pieces are such a significant part of our wardrobe that we will cherish forever. Many embroidered pieces are bought while many families hand down these pieces from one generation to the next. Some of the threads used in embroidery are made of gold. However, sometimes these are also made in plastic, which tend to melt at low temperature. Gold however breaks down instead; if you see the threads breaking down at higher temperatures, you can be assured of its composition.
Cutlery & Crockery
Have you seen china sets, flatware or cups lined with gold? Well some of it is real. The gold can be removed by simply scrapping it lightly with a metal spoon or something similar. However, the value of the crockery set or cutlery set will be much higher than the gold and must be preserved.
Last but not the least… Jewellery
Jewellery is not 100% gold as gold is soft and can be molded with bare hands. Hence, it is mixed with alloys to make them more durable. The percentage of pure gold is denoted by Karat i.e. 22K, 21K, 20K,18K and so on and so forth. 22K is the purest form of gold, hence have to be handled with more care as compared to other purities. Since the gold percentage is more, 22K gold jewellery is more expensive than 21K (when all the other parameters are kept constant).
We continue to get amazed by the wide applications of gold. This makes us fall in love with this yellow metal all over again. You can extract some of this gold with the help of a trained professional and we would not encourage you to do the same on your own.
Do you know any other items that have gold in it? If yes, we’d love to know about them in the comments below.
