ed gold and because of that there have been many gold rushes around the world. A gold rush is a period of time when people race to the fields where the gold has been discovered to try and grab their share of the riches.

Not many miners got rich in the 1800's. Often prospectors wo

Look at the current rise in the price of Gold from about $20(~1900) to somewhere around $800 (early 1980's). Today in 2007 we see Gold returning to about $650 US. So remember when the reference for Gold is given for a creek in California in 1900 US Dollars the typical price back toward 1900 was $20. This means today's price is about 40 times higher. Before you start jumping up and down with joy, think about what has really happened; The US dollar has experienced a 40 fold inflation in the last century. The value of a standard reference commodity called Gold costs you 40 times as much. That's a bad thing, there's nothing like losing 4000% in value.

Gold has been a precious metal for as long as humans can remember. The reason it is precious is that it is universally accepted as a monetary exchange medium, its useful, beautiful and hard to find. It is said by some that most of the world's gold supply has been removed from the ground and melted into bars and coins, but in reality only 1% to 20% has been taken, depending on who you talk to. That leaves 99% to 80% of all the gold in the world still in the ground! People have always wanted gold and because of that there have been many gold rushes around the world. A gold rush is a period of time when people race to the fields where the gold has been discovered to try and grab their share of the riches.

Not many miners got rich in the 1800's. Often prospectors wou

00 was $20. This means today's price is about 40 times higher. Before you start jumping up and down with joy, think about what has really happened; The US dollar has experienced a 40 fold inflation in the last century. The value of a standard reference commodity called Gold costs you 40 times as much. That's a bad thing, there's nothing like losing 4000% in value.

Gold has been a precious metal for as long as humans can remember. The reason it is precious is that it is universally accepted as a monetary exchange medium, its useful, beautiful and hard to find. It is said by some that most of the world's gold supply has been removed from the ground and melted into bars and coins, but in reality only 1% to 20% has been taken, depending on who you talk to. That leaves 99% to 80% of all the gold in the world still in the ground! People have always wanted gold and because of that there have been many gold rushes around the world. A gold rush is a period of time when people race to the fields where the gold has been discovered to try and grab their share of the riches.

Not many miners got rich in the 1800's. Often prospectors wo

imes as much. That's a bad thing, there's nothing like losing 4000% in value.

Gold has been a precious metal for as long as humans can remember. The reason it is precious is that it is universally accepted as a monetary exchange medium, its useful, beautiful and hard to find. It is said by some that most of the world's gold supply has been removed from the ground and melted into bars and coins, but in reality only 1% to 20% has been taken, depending on who you talk to. That leaves 99% to 80% of all the gold in the world still in the ground! People have always wanted gold and because of that there have been many gold rushes around the world. A gold rush is a period of time when people race to the fields where the gold has been discovered to try and grab their share of the riches.

Not many miners got rich in the 1800's. Often prospectors wo

said by some that most of the world's gold supply has been removed from the ground and melted into bars and coins, but in reality only 1% to 20% has been taken, depending on who you talk to. That leaves 99% to 80% of all the gold in the world still in the ground! People have always wanted gold and because of that there have been many gold rushes around the world. A gold rush is a period of time when people race to the fields where the gold has been discovered to try and grab their share of the riches.

Not many miners got rich in the 1800's. Often prospectors wo

ed gold and because of that there have been many gold rushes around the world. A gold rush is a period of time when people race to the fields where the gold has been discovered to try and grab their share of the riches.

Not many miners got rich in the 1800's. Often prospectors would go home with less than when they started out on the journey, if they made it back at all. Some mining claim owners did strike it rich, although most didn't. Besides the lucky few with fortunes in gold, the ones that made it big were the marketing entrepreneur's. People who had these entreprenurial skills and initiative to establish a business and take the risk did very well. For example, Levi Strauss the inventor of Levis blue jeans was one of these in the California 1849 gold rush.

One more way an entrepreneur accomplished this feat was by taking goods from stores in town out to the remote mines and placers. Goods that included precious food that the miners didn't have, like kegs of butter or berries for example. They would take the goods up to the gold fields and sell it for many times the price they bought it for. Another thing was to buy up all the mining equipment they could. They bought tools like picks, shovels, and gold pans and sold the equipment somewhere up in the mining claims for many times the price as well. Supply and demand in action.

Back in the past gold had a fixed price called the gold standard,