I recently heard a story from a friend at the District Attorney’s office who had a case where a man involved in a scuffle was shot in the tooth. The man survived, almost injury-free except for a busted lip. It turns out that the man was wearing a grill over his teeth. Gold caps saved this man’s life. When I heard this story though, after I recovered from the initial humor of the image, I realized this fortunate man must have had fake gold in his mouth. Genuine gold is soft and pliable- it certainly couldn’t stop a bullet. The man must have been wearing gold-plated steel, luckily for him.
Gold has long been the precious metal of the world. It is rare, it is virtually impervious to corrosion (which is why sunken treasure from centuries ago is brought up from the seabed in almost its original condition), and its softness gives jewelers a wide range of possibilities for techniques. Silver, which oxidizes and corrodes, is more plentiful and harder to work with, and has never had the same value as gold. Platinum was discovered much later, only 500 years ago, and only began to be used a precious metal for jewelry around 1900.
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