Speaking about smart-phones: according to the British Geological Survey, around 12 % of current world gold production is used in the technology sector, where it is used in such small quantities per individual product, that it may no longer be economical to recycle it. So, apparently, for the first time in history , gold is actually being consumed unrecoverably.
@@claudeyaz Apparently, there are gold accumulating microbes that given enough time can do much of the dirty work for us. I would provide a link, but links get deleted most of the time
lol your comment sounds like a 1970s newspaper ad, it hurts my brain like im in 1990s poor school with those projectors and the terrible old book smell
I have two friends who found a golden Roman coin, that weren't metal detector fanatics. One found a Aureus when renovating his house. The other found a rare Solidus sticking out the dirt in a field. .Now this was decades apart, and the Solidus was found in Portugal while the Aureus was found in Italy. However if i know two random people who found such coins, who knows much gold is still hidden allover the former empire ? ( so who knows, maybe i'll be the lucky finder one day ;)
Absolutely. In 2016, a backhoe dug up 19 amphorae in a park here in Tomares, near Seville, Spain. 53,000 Roman coins in remarkably good condition. A lot of turmoil in the 500-600s buried a lot of treasure all over the Mediterranean and beyond. Seriously, I should get a metal detector.
@@OAlemWow. 53.000 coins ! Yes, if you live in Spain i should give it a try. You could buy a secondhand detector first, and see if you like it. Good luck ;)
What a cool concept! I’d never considered the fact that gold has been recycled through time in such large amounts. Thanks so much for sharing! :D me and my dad love your videos
He's offered no proof. We can easily tell with isotopes, similar to lead. So yeah. We can track gold and lead to the exact mines they came out of and thus whos it was and where it came from and when it was mined.
its probably been all used up for treasures which exist today. if there is any hidden roman gold; its probably buried somewhere near the sites. or in places where its dangerous to go. they wouldn't have just dug it somewhere easily found. more than likely in forests because its almost impossible to know where anything was ever buried.
The biggest recycling project was between 1939 and 1945, stupid mustache guy was recycling allllll the gold from Europe, parts of Russia, and North of Africa. All he could find, he was asking people for gold to recycle for 5 years. He also did all the difficult work of transporting it to his country to recycle it so kindly for everybody. When over 20 million of red army savages died while doing the work of getting rid of stupid mustache guy Americans jumped in and took over his recycling project. This is how all the trash for recycling ended up in US of A. The funny thing is how USA managed do blow almost all of that recycling dough in about 20 years. Nixon had to fake it and bring in monopoly money, he could print it whenever he needed to, while throwing into jail any of his citizens trying to do the same when in need of extra cash. You're welcome :D.
This is an interesting thought experiment for sure, but i think most of the recycled Roman gold was made into medievel and renaissance coins and/or decorative objects which are probably still around today. It's unlikely that a manufacturer of electronic components somewhere in China would use those for its gold supply, instead it probably comes directly from a mine.
Absolutely, it is far East Asia where electronics are made for the most part on Earth, and let's not forget that open traces circuits aren't common at all like they show in this image, they allude like traces would be made from gold which they are never made from gold. Besides unmasked cooper traces are definitely not a thing in the last 20 years.
I’m sure a good portion of it kept getting smelted down into new things several times over after loot was raided or sold or whatever, and whatever they took at any given time was ‘only’ a couple hundred years old. Probably it’s not the majority of Roman gold that ended up in the general gold supply but I wouldn’t discount a good portion of it making it’s way
Exactly. Also interesting thing is that gold is a by-product of copper mining. In my country KGHM mined and extracted in 2019: 700 000 tonnes of copper and as a by-product 1400 tonnes of silver and 3.2 tonnes of gold from the same ore. You also have other rare metals in this ore: platinum, molybdenum, led, palladium, rhenium, this is being extracted and sold too from the same plant...
Amazing video, as always. I don't know what fascinates me about the Romans more than any other period in history. I've been fortunate to visit Pompeii and Herculaneum and for anyone interested in Roman history, you need to go. It feels like almost a pilgrimage. I could visit them for the rest of my life and never get bored of walking down those ancient streets and wandering into villas.
I've only recently been able to articulate my fascination with the Romans. For me, the Roman Empire equates to a completely modern civilization existing in the ancient world. I find myself able to put myself into the shoes of a Roman more than I can for any other time for this reason. Our worries are similar to theirs (during the Pax Romana, letters show their stresses were similar to today, such as sluggish bureaucracy, noisy roads, incompetent lawyers, losing pets, unfair pay, etc;) and it's far more relatable than the hardships and fear that constant wars and conflicts soon created. While there were glimmers of peace between 200AD and today, the fact that we mimic the joys and sorrows of a people that lived and died over 2,000 years ago is absolutely insane
Yes, I remember reading that a significant percentage of the gold currently in use comes originally from the 19th century gold rushes in Australia, Canada and California. An ancestor of mine came out from the UK in 1852 to manage a quartz crushing plant in Ballarat (Central Victoria) during our gold rush. I believe that some of these places are just waiting for the gold price to rise to reopen.
@@SA-5247 They are waiting for an economic shift. Basically we're nerfing our currency against the USD so our farmers can export. So there are smaller mine sites all over Aus that are closed up with padlocks on the gate. Waiting for our dollar to be worth more.
@@SA-5247 If you HAD watched the video you would have seen how much gold there is in 2021 vs in Roman times…. And a significant chunk (way, way, way more than available in Roman times) WAS mined in South Africa. Please watch that section again.
Imagine the amount gold on the bottom of the Aegean from the crisis of the 3rd century when the Gothic raiders plundered the cities of Asia minor like Ephesus. Their flimsy skiffs loaded down booty were often sent to the bottom when they encountered storms and rough seas.
@@highviewbarbell I remember reading about a proposed plan to do just that- dam the straits between Gibraltar and Morocco, and let the Mediterranean slowly dry up over the course of a couple years. Massive increase in farmland for the region, but who knows what havoc it would wreak on the climate!
@@PascalSWE Not entirely accurate. The plan is German, but from 1929, before the Nazi party was much of a thing. The creator, Sörgel, was also a pacifist pan-Europeanist, so the later rulers of Germany didn't much like him.
In other news: Romania, having declared themselves the legal successors of the Dacians, are claiming that every. Single. Smartphone. User. Now owes them a gold tax as reparations for the gold stolen by Trajan's legions and dug out of that area, including 2000 years of compound interest. Stocks at the Bucarest stock markets rose insanely as Romania was projected to become the richest country on the planet. 🤣
Strange, considering Romania is named after the Romans. And The Romanian language is descended from Roman Latin. The Romans enslaved and slaughtered so many Dacians that Latin became the dominant language. Romania now claiming that they are Dacians is silly. It’s as silly as if modern white Americans started claiming ancient Native American ancestry for financial and political gain… oh wait.
If it was Trajan's fault, why should an Asian guy like me halfway across the world with no Italian or Roman heritage have to pay reparations lol has nothing to do with me. 0
Most of the gold, by far, is in the Earth's core. Though, the core is more than 90% iron, it contains more of the heavier elements, than can be found in the crust. There maybe an order of magnitude, or two (10x, 100x) more gold in the core, than contained in the crust, where it can be mined.
Just the possibility that my phone contains a trace amount of an Aureus once used by Hadrian to pay the for the construction of the wall is mindblowingly monumental. Thanks for that Doc. Again, this channel is a real gem. E: typos
Maybe a bit of Mayan gold also in my phone! I love the way you present your research on Antiquity in such a different and interesting way. Always coming up with different angles that are seldom explored normally.
How the heck didn’t I stumble upon your channel before? These videos are super informative and really well done. Wish my history teacher 26 years ago was as prepared as you are…..
Your videos with commentary, historical information and speculation on the history of the Roman world are pure gold! And so is your fascinating book. Hope you’ll be releasing more books like it!
A considerable amount of gold was lost each year or buried. People lost gold coins or jewellery like rings very often. Metal detectorists today are finding the lost gold items. Also being valuable the gold was often buried but then never dug up again due to death, war or not being able to find where they buried it. Gold also got lost in ship wrecks as the Spanish found. Romans lost up to 2 percent of their coins a year. Including throwing them into water or the sea to appease the gods.
I love this video because you give estimates and try to guess the gold supply and usage for Romes trade. That is super cool. Please make more on this gold supply situation and talk about what is was mostly used for when trading and their great treasures in more detail. Please also talk about why Rome exported so much of its gold in trades
At 1:56 I went from a quiet ‘wow’ at the beginning to shouting ‘W H A T’ out loud. A welcome counterweight to the disheartening & so-frequent-it’s-nearly-a-catchphrase ‘melted down’
Nicely done! I spent quite a few years working with the gold mines in Elko County, NV. The technology required to mine ore and then produce gold (cyanide heap leaches for example - as one of several methods) while complying with a myriad of economic, social, and government restraints is really interesting.
Great video. That Boscoreale aureus at 1:32 is the most beautiful Roman gold coin I have seen. I'm glad it wasn't melted down either by the mountain or the guys that found it.
It is quite amazing to me that the majority of the gold mined since the beginning of time has been mined since we stopped using gold as a currency less than 100 years ago.
Thank you for another interesting video. My brother and I often have conversations about the ancient world, and this is a subject that has come up from time to time. And now we have an answer! Keep up the great work, and, again, thank you.
I used to collect ancient Greek coins , I remember reading that a hoard of Roman coins (bronze and silver IIRC found in the 2000's was so large that it depressed the market price among collectors .
Very interesting video super. The most beautiful gold object I ever saw is the funeral mask of Tut. Probably the most gold and silver came from Peru and Bolivia. The cathedral in Cusco has the most gold I ever saw…. Great estimates and video! Thanks!
Dr. G, I would not, myself, use the word 'gold' as being used on temple roofing slates and statues. I had always read that it was generally electrum - which, being much harder than gold, makes sense. And the purity of gold in Lydian, Hellenistic or even Judean coinage is a bit moot. Gold content, yes, but not assayed to the levels we do now. The bullion famine in the late Medieval period was, as I understand it, reversed by the influx of the purest quality gold (and silver) from the New World which again, as I have read, ironically lead to all sorts of devaluations and inflations - or certainly upsets. We have a 'gold-hangover' from the Roman Empire - on an emotional, cultural level. But the amount of 'pure' gold from Roman times in use now is certainly minimal when you factor in the gushes of pure gold that flooded in from Peru, Australia, California, the Klondike and South Africa. Like the Roman diamonds you see in the odd piece of jewellery. Not de Beers quality. Their gemstones were crude, their gold not always pure, their silver frequently suspect - but they knew a quality pearl when they saw one!
Yeah, that makes sense. Watering down the currency was a common and infamous practice during the imperial period, so it comes as no surprise their gold wasn’t as pure as we have now.
@@thenoblepoptart It's wrong however. While silver coinage was greatly debased, Roman gold coinage (including both the aureus and the later solidus) stayed consistently pure at levels above 95% pure gold. Instead, debasement for gold coinage usually came in the form of reduced weight rather than reduced purity. Electrum coinage, which usually had between 40% and 60% gold content, was not common past around 400 BC. Alexander's gold staters, and those of his Hellenistic successors, were well above 90% purity. This is pretty clear when you see the deep gold color of those coins today.
@@memovox4218 wow, I always thought it was the classic debasement, with emperors cutting the molten gold with different stuff, but what you’re describing sounds more like coin clipping, a crime mostly practiced by the common people and not the mint or central authority.
@@thenoblepoptart The coins weren't clipped, just struck in increasingly lower weights. The aureus, from the time of Augustus to Septimius Severus (over 200 years), weighed about 7.2 grams pretty consistently. After the reign of Caracalla, you can see the coins become thinner and lighter all the way to those of Gallienus, where it bottomed out at under 2 grams. Constantine then reformed the coinage and replaced the aureus with the solidus, which stayed at about 4.4 grams and
"down the rabbit hole we go" Intel had a project to use only virgin gold. (And virgin tantalum too.) But gold is used is more places than the SoC (although CPU pins is a main use). Apparently they think gold stinks.
Also the re-titling was probably a good idea, much more scholarly sounding over the previous clickbaity/instagrammy one, but still eyecatching and approachable
This video reminded me of Primo Levi's "The Periodic Table," where, in the last chapter, he undertakes "to tell the story of an atom of carbon . . . . [that] guides this hand of [his] to impress on the paper this dot, here, this one."
This was wonderful! I've never really pondered the journey gold has taken over time. It's got me fascinated. I'm gonna head off to my bookshelf now with a vengeance. Thanks bud! Shared this with a bunch of dudes for you.
What an interesting project! I think it can be said that the need for gold and the need for slaves both kept the Romans pursuing their strategy of conquest. The loss of gold via the payments for goods provided by traders flowing out of the empire was a constant topic of discussion and debate in the Roman Senate. This has implications today and a warning for the economy of any Western democracy for a nation that runs a negative merchandise trade balance (imports requiring a flow of payments outbound greater than the payments coming inbound due to sold exports).
I was thinking of Aelian's "On the Nature of Animals" 8.4: "And men tell of the moray belonging to Crassus the Roman, which had been adorned with earrings and small necklaces set with jewels, just like some lovely maiden; and when Crassus called it, it would recognize his voice and come swimming up, and whatever he offered it, it would eagerly and promptly take and eat. Now when this fish died Crassus, so I am told, actually mourned for it and buried it."
The most fascinating thing about gold and most other elements heavier than iron is that it is all created by something called the r-process (rapid neutron capture process) than is an approximately 2 seconds long window during a supernova or a neutron star collision. It is humbling to think that in order for most life as we know to exist at all, billions of stars have coalesced, shone for millions of years and then died a violent death ejecting their cargo of metals to form new planets around different stars.
I read an article once that said if all the known gold in the world was melted down it wouldn't fill an Olympic swimming pool.. I have no idea if its true and I've never seen or heard that statement repeated. I just always remembered it..
To quote Garrett, this is a “glittering” post, offering a surprising insight in the history of the most coveted bling. Very, very interesting. But is also making me think about the future of this precious metal, as in time, sources will run out because of the over-mining. Gold will become more and more rare till it will be the subject of stories about an even more distant past.
I would have liked an estimate of how much the gold has since been mixed up. When a smart phone in produced today does the gold come directly from a mine? Or does it tend to come from boullion bars that have been cast from old scrap jewelry and other bars that have been continually minted, cast, forged and recast through the ages? This would greatly affect the chances that a certain percentage of it was once an aureus.
This could help settle the Mansa Musa debate. I am of the mind that Augustus was wealthier, mostly due to his massive role in the global economy. As far as gold reserves, though, who do think had more?
There's no way to say definitively, of course, but I would guess that there's at least a reasonable chance that there was more gold in the Augustus' Roman Empire than in the Mali Empire of Mansa Musa. The trouble is that the literary sources for both monarchs are more interested in the rhetoric of wealth than in serious quantification.
Somewhere in ancient Rome:
"Is there Assyrian Bronze in your War Horn?"
Lmao
hahaha !!!
No but I have a ready supply of Cleopatra's special face-mask.
Somewhere in ancient Assyria:
"Is there Sumerian bronze in your daggers?"
@@JJAB91 🤣
Speaking about smart-phones: according to the British Geological Survey, around 12 % of current world gold production is used in the technology sector, where it is used in such small quantities per individual product, that it may no longer be economical to recycle it.
So, apparently, for the first time in history , gold is actually being consumed unrecoverably.
Gold foil has been used on food as a garnish for centuries.
@@Victor-xj4cv but not all that widely compared to how it is being used in modern technology.
not economical =/= impossible. at some point it will be worth again if the overall supply drains enough. standard economics
Eventually.... when it goes shorter. People will dig up 1000 year old buried tech for gold if we live that long
@@claudeyaz Apparently, there are gold accumulating microbes that given enough time can do much of the dirty work for us. I would provide a link, but links get deleted most of the time
There might be no Roman gold in my phone, but these videos are gold for sure. Expecting to get your book for Christmas. Can't wait!
lol your comment sounds like a 1970s newspaper ad, it hurts my brain like im in 1990s poor school with those projectors and the terrible old book smell
@@AckzaTV if you were a youtuber i’m sure you’d appreciate the sweet comment. & your brain hurts bc it’s made of rocks & dog shit
@@AckzaTV i’m sure if you were a youtuber you would appreciate the sweet comment. & your brain hurts from all the rocks & dog poop rattling around
lmao why is my reply getting taken off, ackza has rocks for brains
@@secretPENGUIN69 Ruthless
I have two friends who found a golden Roman coin, that weren't metal detector fanatics. One found a Aureus when renovating his house. The other found a rare Solidus sticking out the dirt in a field. .Now this was decades apart, and the Solidus was found in Portugal while the Aureus was found in Italy. However if i know two random people who found such coins, who knows much gold is still hidden allover the former empire ? ( so who knows, maybe i'll be the lucky finder one day ;)
Absolutely. In 2016, a backhoe dug up 19 amphorae in a park here in Tomares, near Seville, Spain. 53,000 Roman coins in remarkably good condition. A lot of turmoil in the 500-600s buried a lot of treasure all over the Mediterranean and beyond. Seriously, I should get a metal detector.
@@OAlemWow. 53.000 coins ! Yes, if you live in Spain i should give it a try. You could buy a secondhand detector first, and see if you like it. Good luck ;)
I might get a metal detector as the romans had vineyards not far from the land I own.
@@Pshady Good luck . May Fortuna bless you ;)
Probably the best amount hidden now is "finded" but in the end... who know.
What a cool concept! I’d never considered the fact that gold has been recycled through time in such large amounts. Thanks so much for sharing! :D me and my dad love your videos
He's offered no proof. We can easily tell with isotopes, similar to lead. So yeah. We can track gold and lead to the exact mines they came out of and thus whos it was and where it came from and when it was mined.
He's going to deleted these replies because he doesn't agree with facts or science
@@tracemyers1275 If you are going to be a critic, and comment in English, at least use proper grammar...
its probably been all used up for treasures which exist today. if there is any hidden roman gold; its probably buried somewhere near the sites. or in places where its dangerous to go. they wouldn't have just dug it somewhere easily found. more than likely in forests because its almost impossible to know where anything was ever buried.
The biggest recycling project was between 1939 and 1945, stupid mustache guy was recycling allllll the gold from Europe, parts of Russia, and North of Africa. All he could find, he was asking people for gold to recycle for 5 years. He also did all the difficult work of transporting it to his country to recycle it so kindly for everybody. When over 20 million of red army savages died while doing the work of getting rid of stupid mustache guy Americans jumped in and took over his recycling project. This is how all the trash for recycling ended up in US of A. The funny thing is how USA managed do blow almost all of that recycling dough in about 20 years. Nixon had to fake it and bring in monopoly money, he could print it whenever he needed to, while throwing into jail any of his citizens trying to do the same when in need of extra cash. You're welcome :D.
This is an interesting thought experiment for sure, but i think most of the recycled Roman gold was made into medievel and renaissance coins and/or decorative objects which are probably still around today. It's unlikely that a manufacturer of electronic components somewhere in China would use those for its gold supply, instead it probably comes directly from a mine.
Absolutely, it is far East Asia where electronics are made for the most part on Earth, and let's not forget that open traces circuits aren't common at all like they show in this image, they allude like traces would be made from gold which they are never made from gold.
Besides unmasked cooper traces are definitely not a thing in the last 20 years.
I’m sure a good portion of it kept getting smelted down into new things several times over after loot was raided or sold or whatever, and whatever they took at any given time was ‘only’ a couple hundred years old. Probably it’s not the majority of Roman gold that ended up in the general gold supply but I wouldn’t discount a good portion of it making it’s way
Exactly. Also interesting thing is that gold is a by-product of copper mining. In my country KGHM mined and extracted in 2019: 700 000 tonnes of copper and as a by-product 1400 tonnes of silver and 3.2 tonnes of gold from the same ore. You also have other rare metals in this ore: platinum, molybdenum, led, palladium, rhenium, this is being extracted and sold too from the same plant...
Countless medieval and renaissance coins and artifacts have been melted down over the centuries, just as ancient treasure often was when found.
Amazing video, as always. I don't know what fascinates me about the Romans more than any other period in history. I've been fortunate to visit Pompeii and Herculaneum and for anyone interested in Roman history, you need to go. It feels like almost a pilgrimage. I could visit them for the rest of my life and never get bored of walking down those ancient streets and wandering into villas.
Now that’s a pilgrimage I’m wanting to take!
I've only recently been able to articulate my fascination with the Romans. For me, the Roman Empire equates to a completely modern civilization existing in the ancient world. I find myself able to put myself into the shoes of a Roman more than I can for any other time for this reason. Our worries are similar to theirs (during the Pax Romana, letters show their stresses were similar to today, such as sluggish bureaucracy, noisy roads, incompetent lawyers, losing pets, unfair pay, etc;) and it's far more relatable than the hardships and fear that constant wars and conflicts soon created. While there were glimmers of peace between 200AD and today, the fact that we mimic the joys and sorrows of a people that lived and died over 2,000 years ago is absolutely insane
Visit in springtime or early autumn, summer is too hot to walk around😉
Nothing like Roma,I being there I want to go back it is fascinating.
Love it nothing like Rome walking around it is like a dream you get transported to THOUSE time.Thanks .
Yes, I remember reading that a significant percentage of the gold currently in use comes originally from the 19th century gold rushes in Australia, Canada and California. An ancestor of mine came out from the UK in 1852 to manage a quartz crushing plant in Ballarat (Central Victoria) during our gold rush. I believe that some of these places are just waiting for the gold price to rise to reopen.
Golds at an all time high lol what are they waiting for?
The South African gold rush was by far the biggest gold rush in history and is the biggest source of gold in circulation to this very day.
@@matheuroux5134 You didn't even watch the video, did you?
@@SA-5247 They are waiting for an economic shift. Basically we're nerfing our currency against the USD so our farmers can export. So there are smaller mine sites all over Aus that are closed up with padlocks on the gate. Waiting for our dollar to be worth more.
@@SA-5247 If you HAD watched the video you would have seen how much gold there is in 2021 vs in Roman times…. And a significant chunk (way, way, way more than available in Roman times) WAS mined in South Africa. Please watch that section again.
Imagine the amount gold on the bottom of the Aegean from the crisis of the 3rd century when the Gothic raiders plundered the cities of Asia minor like Ephesus. Their flimsy skiffs loaded down booty were often sent to the bottom when they encountered storms and rough seas.
Id unironically love to drain the Mediterranean lol
@@highviewbarbell I remember reading about a proposed plan to do just that- dam the straits between Gibraltar and Morocco, and let the Mediterranean slowly dry up over the course of a couple years. Massive increase in farmland for the region, but who knows what havoc it would wreak on the climate!
@@martinwhite2935 Its also possible that it would create 0 farmland and just a huge salty desert. Its a originally a nazi plan btw
@@martinwhite2935 Dry up in a couple of years? Do you know how many rivers feed into the Mediterranean?
@@PascalSWE Not entirely accurate. The plan is German, but from 1929, before the Nazi party was much of a thing. The creator, Sörgel, was also a pacifist pan-Europeanist, so the later rulers of Germany didn't much like him.
In other news: Romania, having declared themselves the legal successors of the Dacians, are claiming that every. Single. Smartphone. User. Now owes them a gold tax as reparations for the gold stolen by Trajan's legions and dug out of that area, including 2000 years of compound interest. Stocks at the Bucarest stock markets rose insanely as Romania was projected to become the richest country on the planet. 🤣
Good luck enforcing such a bold claim. It won't go anywhere, lol. And it's a debatable claim to begin with.
@@martinr1834 Romania historically has nothing to do with Russia except being in the USSR for 50 years. It's Ukraine you're thinking of probably.
Strange, considering Romania is named after the Romans. And The Romanian language is descended from Roman Latin.
The Romans enslaved and slaughtered so many Dacians that Latin became the dominant language. Romania now claiming that they are Dacians is silly.
It’s as silly as if modern white Americans started claiming ancient Native American ancestry for financial and political gain… oh wait.
If it was Trajan's fault, why should an Asian guy like me halfway across the world with no Italian or Roman heritage have to pay reparations lol has nothing to do with me. 0
@@RuiRuichi I despair in humanity. I utterly and completely despair.
Imagine all the gold buried in the earth or under water due to ship wrecks.
Under glacial ice as well. Retreat of glaciers exposes large amounts of precious metals. Finding them on the other hand...
Agreed, man. I'd love to see some analysis done on how much they think has been deposited over time in funerary rites for example.
Most of the gold, by far, is in the Earth's core. Though, the core is more than 90% iron, it contains more of the heavier elements, than can be found in the crust. There maybe an order of magnitude, or two (10x, 100x) more gold in the core, than contained in the crust, where it can be mined.
Or gold accidentally thrown away, old jewelry boxes, electronics, etc.
I always be be amazed at how much people find especially with novice metal detection kits, makes me want to go try treasure hunting....
Just the possibility that my phone contains a trace amount of an Aureus once used by Hadrian to pay the for the construction of the wall is mindblowingly monumental. Thanks for that Doc.
Again, this channel is a real gem.
E: typos
Asking the questions I never knew I needed answered!
Maybe a bit of Mayan gold also in my phone!
I love the way you present your research on Antiquity in such a different and interesting way. Always coming up with different angles that are seldom explored normally.
How the heck didn’t I stumble upon your channel before? These videos are super informative and really well done. Wish my history teacher 26 years ago was as prepared as you are…..
Hey Doc. Just found your book in a Swedish book shop. Placed an order so ill have it ready for Christmas.
Ooh which one?
@@feffe4036 Adlibris har den.
Your videos with commentary, historical information and speculation on the history of the Roman world are pure gold! And so is your fascinating book. Hope you’ll be releasing more books like it!
Much appreciated! With any luck, the next book isn't too far away...
A considerable amount of gold was lost each year or buried. People lost gold coins or jewellery like rings very often. Metal detectorists today are finding the lost gold items. Also being valuable the gold was often buried but then never dug up again due to death, war or not being able to find where they buried it. Gold also got lost in ship wrecks as the Spanish found.
Romans lost up to 2 percent of their coins a year. Including throwing them into water or the sea to appease the gods.
Like rings... Yes, Deagol found one for example in the river Anduin...
Or lost to greedy Swiss bankers...
I love this video because you give estimates and try to guess the gold supply and usage for Romes trade. That is super cool. Please make more on this gold supply situation and talk about what is was mostly used for when trading and their great treasures in more detail. Please also talk about why Rome exported so much of its gold in trades
I always wanted a gold roman coin.
At 1:56 I went from a quiet ‘wow’ at the beginning to shouting ‘W H A T’ out loud. A welcome counterweight to the disheartening & so-frequent-it’s-nearly-a-catchphrase ‘melted down’
You changed your surname??
You sir are worth your weight in gold. Thank you for the enjoyment you bring to so many people.
Your book title is brilliant! Very enticing!
Glad to hear it!
Fascinating as always. it is incredible how much gold was minted and exported to asian markets in roman times. Thank you for this series of videos
Nicely done! I spent quite a few years working with the gold mines in Elko County, NV. The technology required to mine ore and then produce gold (cyanide heap leaches for example - as one of several methods) while complying with a myriad of economic, social, and government restraints is really interesting.
Great video. That Boscoreale aureus at 1:32 is the most beautiful Roman gold coin I have seen. I'm glad it wasn't melted down either by the mountain or the guys that found it.
It is quite amazing to me that the majority of the gold mined since the beginning of time has been mined since we stopped using gold as a currency less than 100 years ago.
That's 20th/21st century industry and tech. The population in 1950 was like 2.5 billion and now its getting closer to 8 billion
Its somewhat ironic that the construction of our modern technology comes from such ancient roots. Great subject!
Hard work lasts the longest
Thank you for another interesting video. My brother and I often have conversations about the ancient world, and this is a subject that has come up from time to time. And now we have an answer! Keep up the great work, and, again, thank you.
what about a conversation about a campaing like this? th-cam.com/video/aIfUMZL-H98/w-d-xo.html
I'd be interested in seeing how the total amount of gold above ground correlates with population growth
Thank you sir for the value you provided with your upload 🙏🏼 greetings from 🇸🇴
I always love seeing a new video of yours in my feed :) thanks for your effort
Wow. Look at the number of your subscribers! Well done. I started following you ages ago - you’re popular now! 😊
Keep em coming. Halfway through your book by the way. Good stuff.
This channel is gold
Thanks so much for answering this question!
I used to collect ancient Greek coins , I remember reading that a hoard of Roman coins (bronze and silver IIRC found in the 2000's was so large that it depressed the market price among collectors .
and you sold ur greek coibs?
@@aka99 Yeah , to pay the f-ing IRS .
@@rodanzig i feel sorry for you!
@@rodanzig wow, that's rough
This story is pure gold!
Easiest way to have a piece of Rome is to buy a coin, but this is still a cool idea.
The relation to "cube size" blows my mind. I would have expected so much more
Very interesting video super. The most beautiful gold object I ever saw is the funeral mask of Tut. Probably the most gold and silver came from Peru and Bolivia. The cathedral in Cusco has the most gold I ever saw…. Great estimates and video! Thanks!
Awesome content. Subscribed right away. Keep the good job
i just read your book, great content! Congrats!
Switzerland is utterly silent after this video was posted !
Such a great way to teach history, teachers should take notes!
This channel is such a treat
Brehj, this is literally the content I froth over. Thanks for making this!!
Just got to say. I honestly think this guy has the most soothing voice ever!
Holy shit this channel is taking off! Great stuff
Wow, it was like you were reading my mind! Great video!
Awesome video. You just get better every time
This is what youtube is for. What a fantastic video idea! Thank you for sharing
Another fascinating video! Thanks!
Nice to know some of the gold Herod bribed Antony with is in my cheap cellphone. Kind of makes me feel like a player.
I'm a first time visitor to your channel.
This was a cool presentation. Thanks.
(new subscriber)
Your channel is very important. I cannot wait to see how much more it will grow. Keep up the great work!!
Edit: Truly quality content
Dr. G, I would not, myself, use the word 'gold' as being used on temple roofing slates and statues. I had always read that it was generally electrum - which, being much harder than gold, makes sense. And the purity of gold in Lydian, Hellenistic or even Judean coinage is a bit moot. Gold content, yes, but not assayed to the levels we do now. The bullion famine in the late Medieval period was, as I understand it, reversed by the influx of the purest quality gold (and silver) from the New World which again, as I have read, ironically lead to all sorts of devaluations and inflations - or certainly upsets. We have a 'gold-hangover' from the Roman Empire - on an emotional, cultural level. But the amount of 'pure' gold from Roman times in use now is certainly minimal when you factor in the gushes of pure gold that flooded in from Peru, Australia, California, the Klondike and South Africa. Like the Roman diamonds you see in the odd piece of jewellery. Not de Beers quality. Their gemstones were crude, their gold not always pure, their silver frequently suspect - but they knew a quality pearl when they saw one!
Yeah, that makes sense. Watering down the currency was a common and infamous practice during the imperial period, so it comes as no surprise their gold wasn’t as pure as we have now.
@@thenoblepoptart It's wrong however. While silver coinage was greatly debased, Roman gold coinage (including both the aureus and the later solidus) stayed consistently pure at levels above 95% pure gold. Instead, debasement for gold coinage usually came in the form of reduced weight rather than reduced purity. Electrum coinage, which usually had between 40% and 60% gold content, was not common past around 400 BC. Alexander's gold staters, and those of his Hellenistic successors, were well above 90% purity. This is pretty clear when you see the deep gold color of those coins today.
@@memovox4218 wow, I always thought it was the classic debasement, with emperors cutting the molten gold with different stuff, but what you’re describing sounds more like coin clipping, a crime mostly practiced by the common people and not the mint or central authority.
@@thenoblepoptart The coins weren't clipped, just struck in increasingly lower weights. The aureus, from the time of Augustus to Septimius Severus (over 200 years), weighed about 7.2 grams pretty consistently. After the reign of Caracalla, you can see the coins become thinner and lighter all the way to those of Gallienus, where it bottomed out at under 2 grams. Constantine then reformed the coinage and replaced the aureus with the solidus, which stayed at about 4.4 grams and
@@memovox4218 thats really interesting
"down the rabbit hole we go"
Intel had a project to use only virgin gold. (And virgin tantalum too.)
But gold is used is more places than the SoC (although CPU pins is a main use).
Apparently they think gold stinks.
Also the re-titling was probably a good idea, much more scholarly sounding over the previous clickbaity/instagrammy one, but still eyecatching and approachable
Always interesting to see that gold, trade and commerce has always been an integral part of every great nation.
Your content is amazing.
Wow amazing. You should do a video on Roman mining
Very interesting! Perhaps cover the furthest Roman outpost next?
I wonder how much of that world total of gold has ended up in landfill in various forms
This video reminded me of Primo Levi's "The Periodic Table," where, in the last chapter, he undertakes "to tell the story of an atom of carbon . . . . [that] guides this hand of [his] to impress on the paper this dot, here, this one."
An excellent presentation, thanks.
Great, fun video! Thanks! Maybe a future video on Roman precious metals mining. Or about trade with Oriental civilizations.
another baller video my man keep em coming
Love these videos! So well done!
Fascinating! The Director and Producer Rick Spurway is working on an important new documentary series on Roman Gold :-)
Cool idea and well executed video!!
This was wonderful! I've never really pondered the journey gold has taken over time. It's got me fascinated. I'm gonna head off to my bookshelf now with a vengeance. Thanks bud! Shared this with a bunch of dudes for you.
Thank you for a great analysis. Your videos are *gold.*
This videos about to blow up
Wow, what a surprising and interesting topic, congratulations!
What an interesting project! I think it can be said that the need for gold and the need for slaves both kept the Romans pursuing their strategy of conquest. The loss of gold via the payments for goods provided by traders flowing out of the empire was a constant topic of discussion and debate in the Roman Senate. This has implications today and a warning for the economy of any Western democracy for a nation that runs a negative merchandise trade balance (imports requiring a flow of payments outbound greater than the payments coming inbound due to sold exports).
Dr. Ryan, can we PLEASE get a citation on the gold Ancient Roman fish chain? Sounds awesome as absolute heck!
I was thinking of Aelian's "On the Nature of Animals" 8.4:
"And men tell of the moray belonging to Crassus the Roman, which had been adorned with earrings and small necklaces set with jewels, just like some lovely maiden; and when Crassus called it, it would recognize his voice and come swimming up, and whatever he offered it, it would eagerly and promptly take and eat. Now when this fish died Crassus, so I am told, actually mourned for it and buried it."
Very interesting and... enjoyable, as usual !
Delighted to hear it!
very cool video, keep up the great content!
Thanks again for giving me my history fix
It never ceases to amaze me that there is no 4K or at least 1080p in this channel's videos. Are we in ancient times?
Very informative documentary thank you from a historian point and also for a numismatic value in history
Have your book from the library. Great stuff.
Great video Ahch!
Amazing video 👌
The only sure way to know you have Roman gold is to own an Aureus or the later gold coin denomination.
The later gold coin was a solidis (My spelling is probably wrong).
@@johngreen3543
Ah I remember now, the Solidus. I think this was after Constantine or Diocletian but I could be wrong.
Amazing sir! Simply amazing!
The most fascinating thing about gold and most other elements heavier than iron is that it is all created by something called the r-process (rapid neutron capture process) than is an approximately 2 seconds long window during a supernova or a neutron star collision. It is humbling to think that in order for most life as we know to exist at all, billions of stars have coalesced, shone for millions of years and then died a violent death ejecting their cargo of metals to form new planets around different stars.
What would the value of Alexander's coffin be today? Priceless? Amazing to imagine. 👍🇲🇰👍
I read an article once that said if all the known gold in the world was melted down it wouldn't fill an Olympic swimming pool..
I have no idea if its true and I've never seen or heard that statement repeated.
I just always remembered it..
I think we all appreciate your cautious behavior when it comes to numbers
When you said that gold is always used and reused blew my mind lol I never even thought of that
I'd like to know more about the Roman coin found in Japan actually...
To quote Garrett, this is a “glittering” post, offering a surprising insight in the history of the most coveted bling. Very, very interesting. But is also making me think about the future of this precious metal, as in time, sources will run out because of the over-mining. Gold will become more and more rare till it will be the subject of stories about an even more distant past.
Have you thought about the possibility of space mining actually making gold abundant
@@grahamt5924 Yes, you’re right. I guess we’ll get there, to eat up whatever we’ll find there too…
@@Angelfeather100 In an infinite universe, that eating up of everything might take us a while. 😆🤣😂
There has been Roman gold coins found in Britain, and. They are in a British museum now
I wish I had friends, then I could share your excellent videos. Sadly I don't, so I just comment into thin air and pretend someone cares.
Dude 😅
I would have liked an estimate of how much the gold has since been mixed up. When a smart phone in produced today does the gold come directly from a mine? Or does it tend to come from boullion bars that have been cast from old scrap jewelry and other bars that have been continually minted, cast, forged and recast through the ages?
This would greatly affect the chances that a certain percentage of it was once an aureus.
I confess. I have a basement filled with Roman gold coins. I just like having it and going down and looking at it all.
This could help settle the Mansa Musa debate. I am of the mind that Augustus was wealthier, mostly due to his massive role in the global economy. As far as gold reserves, though, who do think had more?
There's no way to say definitively, of course, but I would guess that there's at least a reasonable chance that there was more gold in the Augustus' Roman Empire than in the Mali Empire of Mansa Musa. The trouble is that the literary sources for both monarchs are more interested in the rhetoric of wealth than in serious quantification.
This is great content!!!
I've often pondered this.