Treasures from the Museo del Oro, The Biggest Gold Museum in The World

The Museo del Oro in SantaFé de Bogotá, Colombia, offers a splendid presentation of more than 33,000 items of gold and emeralds and other precious materials crafted in pre-Hispanic times.

The Gold Museum, part of the Bank of the Republic of Colombia, preserves and protects this fabulous cultural legacy. The most important museum of its kind anywhere, Museo del Oro showcases the work of ancient peoples who believed gold is the materialization of the life-giving energy from Father Sun. 

The Tumaco, Calima, Malagana, Cauca, San Agustín, Tierradentro, Nari6no, Quimbaya and Tolima cultures worked in the southwestern regions of what is now Colombia. The Sinú, Urabá, Tairona and Muisca cultures existed in the northern regions and were part of the legend of El Dorado, a cacique, or chieftain, whose body was covered in gold dust for the ceremony of throwing gold into Lake Guatavita as an offering to the gods. Don't miss the display of the tiny boat showing this ceremony. 

The collection includes bracelets, earrings, necklaces, breast plates, masks, figurines and rings created from 500 D.C. until the Spanish arrived in the sixteenth century and is displayed in a well-guarded fortress-like room on the top floor. Only twenty people are allowed in at a time.

On the first floor, interpretive cultural displays include pottery, tools and every day items.

The second floor has a model of the La Ciudad Perdida, the Lost City of the Taironas discovered in 1975. Also on display are two gold crosses, adorned with diamonds and emeralds, from the colonial period. 

The third floor is also the Main Exhibition Space. This floor contains the history of gold and significance of prehispanic cultures (period arrival of the Spanish to South America), along with an exhibition of pieces from the culture originated from southwest Colombia. Along the way, visitors also can view the gallery of legends, myths and stories associated with the conquest of Spain and tells the story of Colombia's indigenous people's resistance against the Spanish colonizers. On this floor gold art collections exhibited pre arrival Spaniards Columbian cultures.

The Museo offers educational programs to students, videos, special tours and many archaeological programs and lectures. Audio tapes are available in Spanish, English, German, French and Italian. The museum store has brass replicas on sale. 

Museo del Oro is located at
Street 16 No. 5-41 Parque de Santander
Santafé de Bogotá, 1
Colombia
342-1111 ext 5414 y 334-8748 Fax: (571)2847450
Hours are:

• Tuesday to Saturday 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
• Festive Sundays 10:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
• Visitors must leave by 5:30 p.m.
• Closed Mondays.
• Free entrance on the last Sunday of every month 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Source : http://gosouthamerica.about.com

The World’s Largest Gold Coin

The Royal Canadian Mint unveiled a welcome addition to any piggy bank, a monster gold coin with a face value of $1 million that it says is the world’s biggest, purest and highest denomination coin.

Weighing in at 100 kilograms (220.5 pounds), the limited edition coin easily dwarfs its closest rival, the 31 kg (68 pound) “Big Phil”, which was made to honour the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and has a face value of a mere 100,000 euros (C$150,000).

Originally designed to promote the new one-ounce coins, the colossal 100 kg coins will be produced in a very limited quantity. A U.S. precious metals distributor has ordered three and there is interest in Asia and Europe, the mint said. “We compete for market share with all of these countries and we decided that the time was right to do something to stand out from the crowd once again.”

Source: Reuters

The Golden Porsche

In Russia they drive in solid gold covered Porsche cars. More than 40 pounds of the pure gold was used while decorating this particular car.

 

Source :  http://englishrussia.com

Russian Gold Reserve

Historically, gold holds its value and is the experts’ pick for diversifying your portfolio and potentially increasing its performance. In fact, gold has increased in value over 150% since 2001. As opposed to equities, which can go from very high levels down to zero in a very short time, gold is never going to zero. When other markets collapse, gold has historically seen huge increases in value as people make a quick flight to quality. Gold investing allows individuals to accumulate assets that protect their wealth.

Historically, gold holds its value and is the experts’ pick for diversifying your portfolio and potentially increasing its performance. In fact, gold has increased in value over 150% since 2001. As opposed to equities, which can go from very high levels down to zero in a very short time, gold is never going to zero. When other markets collapse, gold has historically seen huge increases in value as people make a quick flight to quality. Gold investing allows individuals to accumulate assets that protect their wealth.

Engraving lathe puts marking on a bar with “four nines”- 99,99% pure (State Standart 28058-89) at “The Gulidov Krasnoyarsk Non-Ferrous Metals Plant”. “Four nines” is the highest purity of gold bar which is economic to produce for the investment market. Only scientific market would not anything of greater purity, and the production costs would increase disproportionately. Mandatory marking consists of serial number, sample, gem characters, stamp, production date and bar weight in grams or ounces. Bars of the State Standard have the weight from 11000 g to 13300g. Bars of Krasnoyarsky plant have the branch quality mark- Good Delivery status what allows to come to the international market of gems. Besides Krasnoyarsky plant, five more Russian plants have the same status. Total number of the factories all over the world that have the same high Good Delivery Status is 55. 

Krasnoyarsk Non-Ferrous Metals Plant produces also gold bars of nine types State Standard Р51572-2000)- from one gram to one kilogram of gold. This plant produces silver, platinum and palladium bars, besides the gold ones.

P.S. Reserves of gold in Russian government reserve was 495.9 tons in December of 2008.

Source :  http://englishrussia.com

Russian Gold Coated BMW

Meet gold coated BMW M5 from Moscow, Russia.
All right we might not have enough dope on it right now, but the car has everyone’s head spinning. We are talking about the gold plated BMW M5 working wonders on the roads of Moscow. Well, we are not surprised because didn’t we get to see a gold-plated Porsche from Russia only!

So far the car is a real mystery, maybe that is just another reason why it is generating so much buzz. Some might think it is nothing but a vulgar display of money because of the yellow shine all over the body of the car
, but then no one’s ignoring it. In fact, ‘English Russia’ reports that once a gold plated Porsche (maybe it’s the same one we talked about in para one) was hijacked in a busy Moscow street.

Well, these things happen when you are trying to grab everyone’s attention with your moolah. All we can say is watch out BMW M5 gold-plated car guy because we really don’t like to say, “We told you so.”

Source : http://englishrussia.com