1816 A.D.
Great Britain officially ties the pound to a specific quantity of gold at which British currency is convertible.

1817 A.D.
Britain introduces the Sovereign, a small gold coin valued at one pound sterling 1830 A.D. Heinrich G. Kuhn announces his discovery of the formula for fired-on Glanz (bright) Gold. It makes Meissen gold-decorated china world famous.

1837 A.D.
The weight of gold in the U.S. dollar is lessened to 23.22 grains so that one fine troy ounce of gold is valued at $20.67.

1848 A.D.
John Marshall finds flakes of gold while building a sawmill for John Sutter near Sacramento, California, triggering the California Gold Rush and hastening the settlement of the American West.

1850 A.D.
Edward Hammong Hargraves, returning to Australia from California, predicts he will find gold in his home country in one week. He discovered gold in New South Wales within one week of landing.

1859 A.D.
Comstock lode of gold and silver is struck in Nevada.

1862 A.D.
Latin Monetary Union is established setting fineness, weight, size, and denomination of silver and gold coins of France, Italy, Belgium and Switzerland (and Greece in 1868) and obligating all to accept each

1700 A.D.
Gold is discovered in Brazil, which becomes the largest producer of gold by 1720, with nearly two-thirds of the world’s output. Isaac Newton, as Master of the Mint, fixes the price of gold in Great Britain at 84 shillings, 11 & ½ pence per troy ounce. The Royal Commission, composed of Newton, John Locke, and Lord Somers, recommends a recall of all old currency, issuance of new specie with gold/silver ratio of 16-to-1. The gold price thus established in Great Britain lasted for over 200 years.

1744 A.D.
The resurgence of gold mining in Russia begins with the discovery of a quartz outcrop in Ekaterinburg.

1787 A.D.
First U.S. gold coin is struck by Ephraim Brasher, a goldsmith.

1792 A.D.
The Coinage Act places the United States on a bimetallic silver-gold standard, and defines the U.S. dollar as equivalent to 24.75 grains of fine gold and 371.25 grains of fine silver.

1799 A.D.
A 17-pound gold nugget is found in Cabarrus County, North Carolina, the first documented gold discovery in the United States.

1803 A.D.
Gold is discovered at Little Meadow Creek, North Carolina, sparking the first U.S. gold rush.

476 A.D.
The Goths depose Emperor Romulas Augustus, marking the fall of the Roman Empire.

600 A.D. – 699 A.D.
The Byzantine Empire resumes gold mining in central Europe and France, an area untouched since the fall of the Roman Empire.

742 A.D. – 814 A.D.
Charlemagne overruns the Avars and plunders their vast quantities of gold, making it possible for him to take control over much of western Europe.

1066 A.D.
With the Norman conquest, a metallic currency standard is finally re-established in Great Britain with the introduction of a system of pounds, shillings, and pence. The pound is literally a pound of sterling silver.

1250 A.D. – 1299 A.D.
Marco Polo writes of his travels to the Far East, where the “gold wealth was almost unlimited.”

1284 A.D.
Venice introduces the gold Ducat, which soon becomes the most popular coin in the world and remains so for more than five centuries.

1284 A.D.
Great Britain issues its first major gold coin, the Florin. This is followed shortly by the Noble, and later by the Angel, Crown, and Guinea.

1377 A.D.
Great Britain shifts to a monetary system based on gold and silver.

1511 A.D.
King Ferdinand of Spain says to explorers, “Get gold, humanely if you can, but all hazards, get gold,” launching massive expeditions to the newly discovered lands of the Western Hemisphere.