Nelson Evening Mail SATURDAY, MARCH 29, 1930 THE ROMANCE OF PRECIOUS METALS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIV, 29 March 1930, Page 6

Nelson Evening Mail SATURDAY, MARCH 29, 1930 THE ROMANCE OF PRECIOUS METALS

THE romance of gold is easily appreciated, since many stories are current of the gold-seekers; stories of fortunes quickly made, and as quickly spent. Added to which there is tho beauty of the metal, its. ductility and durability, and the effective jewellery made from it—the wedding-ring, for instance. There is a world of romance in the wedding-ring. Undoubtedly tliero is a witchery about gold, a witchery which will always make it prized, whether as a precious metal closely associated with currency, or as tho becoming adornment of tho beauteous sex.

The amount of gold found annually does 'not vary very much—between 18 million and IIJl l J million ounces per annum during the last five years, more than half of which is produced in South Africa from the wonderful mines of tho Rand. The United States and Canada come next, each' with about 2 million ounces per annum; th&i Russia, with about one million. So it will be seen that the British Empire is easily the greatest gold-producer in the world, and yet this gold which it produces—more than 12 million ounces annually—does not stop inside of it, since much goes 1.0 the United States in payment for American products against which there is no offset, in goods bought by Americans, whose tariff-wall keeps out ordinary foreign imports. But we will avoid the uninteresting economic side of the question. Gold is becoming less and less popular as coin. We did hear of a man, the other day, who possesses a sovereign, but' it is over fifteen years ago that we last saw a handful of the yellow, minted messengers of plenty. They have a pretty habit in the United States of giving large gold coins as Christmas presents. The result is that the U.S. mint has to supply millions of these coins, as the Festive Season approaches—last year it minted gold coins to the value of nearly 60 millions sterling ~but the strange thing is that as soon as tho Christmas gift-money is put into circulation it begins to find its way back to the U.S. Treasury. There are two reasons for this. Gold coins depreciate jn value quickly through being rubbed against one another. "The deduction of even a small amount to cover loss from the standard weight creates a prejudice against the acceptance of gold coin," we read, and the authority goes on to state, "Difficulty is frequently experienced when worn gold coins are tendered to hanks. . . . To these objections has been added the increasing practice of sweating gold coins. By this process, as much as iwo dollars worth of gold can be extracted from a double eagle without affectifig the inscription on the coin." So people who receive newly-minted giftcoins at Christmas time pass them on quickly, and- retailers lose no time in passing them on to the banks, .before they can be depreciated by honest wear and tear, or by the criminal "sweater." But there are those who prefer gold to all' other media of exchange. Such was the case of the dear old New Zealand lady, who, when she went to her last sleep, some eight or nine years ago, was found to possess some £350 in golden sovereigns and half-sovereigns, which she kept in a small box in her bedroom. Certainly there is a romance attaching to gold.

j WliiT silver the natter is different. Its ' romance is apart from the currency:' it is in the artistic articles which are mado of it—-cups, tankards, dishes, table cen-tre-pieces etc—beautiful objects, both useful and ornamental, which become heirlooms in families, and are passed on from father to son, generation' after generation. But the metallurgists are tikr/y to do much to spoil the romance of silver. They have discovered alloys, which, while debasing the precious metal fifty per cent., leave its colour unaffected, and even improve its hardness. The result is that the English Mint is producing silver coin which is only half silver. If, is no wonder that silver has i ! fallen in value till to-day it stands as low as Is 9d or Is lOd an ounce. There sire other reasons for this. The general demand for silver lias fallen, and for an unlooked-for reason. "The collapse of prices in 1929 can be summed up in one word—saturation. A sponge can' absorb only ti certain amount (of water)' at a time and, if it is to continue to function, the contents must from time to time be released. One sign of repletion is the accumulation of silver in the visible stock at Shanghai. In 1913 the total composed of sycee, dollars, and bars, was about 5J million ounces; towards the close of I'j29 the total had risen to 194 million ounces, an increase of nearly fourfold." In other words John Chinaman is not using so much, silver as he used to. Probably the long period of civil war which has racked China for nearly fifteen years accounts for this. One interesting fact emerges. The great bulk of tho world's silver comes from Mexico and the United Stales. China draws its suppiles mainly through Shanghai. The consequence is that large stocks pf silver tire stored in the Foreign Settlement of that city. When, a few years ago, the Nationalist armies, urged on by Bolshevist agents of Russia, threatened to attack the Foreign Settlement at Shanghai, the ostensible reason was hatred of the foreigners, but the real reason was so ootain the silver stored in the vaults of the Settlement. This fully explains why the British Government despatched some twenty thousand troops and many warships to defend the Settlement, a measure which successfully prevented bloodshed and saved tho coveted silver from falling into tilie hands of the Chinese Bolsheviki.

Thcro are metals which are much more valuable than gold. For instance thero is plaTTnuni, a rare metal, of which, however, the product ion tends to outstrip the demand. Lost year, its opening price was ahout £l4 an ounce, and at tho end of the year it was about £l2. Thero is a metal which is much more valuable than platinum, just as platinum is more valuable than gold. This is iridium. At tho beginning of last year its value stood at a little over £55 an ounce, but by the end of December it had fallen to £37 an ounce. This very precious metal lias been found in the Collingwood District of Now Zealand, where it sometimes occurs in alluvial wash with tho gold. Doubtless, in the gold-digging days much of this valuable metal was rejected by the diggers as valueless. We havo seen a small nugget of iridium, which came with a sample of gold from the Collingwood District to a local goldsmith. It was in tlie shape of small pieces of light coloured metal mixed with the gold. The goldsmith separated the gold from the iridium, and smelted the latter, with a small intermixture of gold, into.an irregular nugget weighing perhaps a quarter of an ounce. Other metals more valuable than gold are palladium, osmium, and osmiridium, of which however the production is very small. Although gold is out-valued by soveral metals, it still remains the queen of metals, becauso it is the most beautiful. Because of its beauty it is destined to remain in close association with tho Mr sex. Hence Tfi'e romance of gold will endure.