GOLD, ITS BEAUTY, POWER AND ALLURE

 C.H.V.Sutherland, Thames and Hudson Third Edition 1969, revised and enlarged.

 In recent years the heavy dependence of world trade on gold has been underlined by a succession of monetary crises. It is in these events, and the heightening of public interest, not only in gold’s economic role today but in the whole story of man’s most coveted metal, which have occasioned this new edition of Dr. Sutherland’s book. The first edition won general praise.

Dr. Sutherland has written an account of gold down the ages; how it has been obtained, the uses to which it has been put, who has controlled it. After an introductory chapter he discusses gold working in ancient Egypt, and the early competition for gold between Persia and Greece which led to the introduction of the first true gold coinage and to a revolution in the economies of states.

Later the Roman coinage system, under the Empire, made gold coinage more widely available than ever before. In the chaos that followed the collapse of Rome, gold coinage ceased to be a reliable means of international exchange, not recovering its stability until after the Dark Ages.

South American exploration eventually provided a new source of gold, and in the early nineteenth century rich fields were discovered in the Steppes of Asiatic Russia.

The search was broadened to a world-wide scale with the Californian gold rush of 1848, and the mines which were opened in Australia, South Africa, Russia, and the Klondike-Yukon still produces most of today’s supply.

In his final chapter the author turns to the bearing of gold on the stability of the dollar, sterling, and the franc, and speculates on its future in a world of credit currency. The plates show the wide range of beautiful objects (including coins) that have been created from gold; also the different aspects of gold working. Dr. Sutherland is the Keeper of Coins at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, (at the time of publication!). He has written widely on coinage in relation to history, and, as author of The Art of Coinage and numerous articles, has made an extensive study of the aesthetic aspects of coins and medals.

An excellent book, both the book and the dust jacket are in good condition, clean and tightly bound. It contains 69 plates, 15 in colour with 11 drawings and maps