EXALT COIN™ DEFINED

For millennia gold has been the trusted store of wealth. Gold's beauty, scarcity, and the ease by which it could be formed and measured made it a natural trading medium. Gold gave rise to the concept of money itself. Portable, Private, Permanent.

The Incas thought gold fell from the sky as the tears or sweat of the sun god Inti. Aristotle said gold was hardened water, transformed when the sun’s rays penetrated deep underground. 
 Isaac Newton thought it possible to make gold out of lead with a philosopher’s stone. Gold on earth was flung onto our planet around 200 million years ago by super-novae explosions which bombarded the planet with meteorites, and dispersed by geo-thermal activities as the Earth cooled. During the formation of Earth, molten iron sank to its centre to make the core. This took with it the vast majority of the planet’s precious metals – such as gold and platinum. It’s thought there are enough precious metals like gold in the planet’s core to cover the entire surface of Earth with a four-metre thick layer.

Some of the earliest examples of gold objects have been found in the tombs of Egyptian pharaohs, who used gold in the creation of jewellery, figurines, and other decorative items, dating as far back as around 2600 BC. The Egyptians, who had at least 1,000 gold mines, considered gold to be the flesh of the gods. Gold was decoratively used in other ancient cultures such as the Mask of Agamemnon in ancient Greece, or the Lycurgus Cup from Rome. In South America goldsmithing was one of the most advanced of all pre-Columbian American arts.

The first known gold coins were minted in the kingdom of Lydia, an ancient civilization that existed in what is now western Turkey, around the 7th century BC. In the late 3rd century BC the Romans started minting a gold coin called the Aureus, which continued to be used until the 4th century AD. ‘Aureus’ is derived from the Latin word for gold, arum.

During the Anglo-Saxon period, the most widely used gold coin in Britain was the Mancus, introduced by the kings of Mercia in the 8th century AD. Following the Norman Conquest a variety of gold coins, including the Noble, Half-Noble, and Quarter-Noble were put into circulation. In 1489 the gold Sovereign was first minted in the reign of Henry VII. Production of Sovereigns was discontinued in 1604 but the coin was reintroduced in 1817; it remained in circulation for centuries. It ceased circulation at the start of the First World War in 1914, replaced by paper money. It remains legal tender within the UK.

The US Coinage Act of 1792 put the country on a bi-metallic gold/silver standard, established the United States Mint and regulated the coinage of the United States. Under this, the US government defined gold and silver as official monetary metals, and established a fixed exchange rate between them. The bi-metallic standard was based on the idea that the value of money should be determined by its weight in gold and silver, rather than being based on a fiat currency (money that is not backed by a commodity such as gold or silver). This was an important step in the establishment of a stable monetary system for the new nation, and it laid the foundation for the country's monetary system that is still in place today.

The California Gold Rush of 1849 began in January of 1848, when gold was discovered at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California by James Marshall. News of the discovery quickly spread, and by the end of the year, thousands of people from all over the world had descended upon California in search of gold. The population of California increased from 14,000 in 1848 to over 250,000 by 1852. The Klondike Gold Rush of 1896-1899, in the Yukon region of Canada, also attracted a large number of prospectors. Other gold rushes include the Victoria Gold rush in Australia (1851-1860s) and the Witwatersrand Gold rush in South Africa (1886)

Under the gold standard the value of a currency is directly tied to the value of the gold that backs it. In the 19th century and early 20th century many countries adopted the gold standard, but it fell out of favour during the Great Depression, when many countries abandoned it in order to be free to inject more money into the system. The US dropped the Gold Standard in 1933 and, in 1971, President Richard Nixon ended all ties between the paper Dollar and gold. Nixon’s decision was driven by a number of factors. One was the Vietnam War, which put huge strains on the US economy.

Gold is scarce, which makes it valuable; it’s durable, it doesn’t tarnish or corrode; it’s universal, and can be easily transported and exchanged; it can be divided into small denominations, which makes it useful for transactions of all sizes; it’s recognisable; it is a good store of value over time and can be an excellent way to store wealth and can be used to protect against economic and other turmoil. Until now however the disadvantages of gold have worked against it being used as money. Thanks to Exalt Coin™ that’s changed. Exalt Coin™ enables its clients to use gold as money, and a store of value. Gold is security – Exalt Coin™ is the key to the future.