VALUE OF GOLD TODAY – value of uncirculated coins – reflectix insulation r value.

Value Of Gold Today

    today

  • On or in the course of this present day
  • the present time or age; “the world of today”; “today we have computers”
  • on this day as distinct from yesterday or tomorrow; “I can’t meet with you today”
  • At the present period of time; nowadays
  • nowadays: in these times; “it is solely by their language that the upper classes nowadays are distinguished”- Nancy Mitford; “we now rarely see horse-drawn vehicles on city streets”; “today almost every home has television”

    gold

  • An alloy of this
  • coins made of gold
  • amber: a deep yellow color; “an amber light illuminated the room”; “he admired the gold of her hair”
  • made from or covered with gold; “gold coins”; “the gold dome of the Capitol”; “the golden calf”; “gilded icons”
  • A yellow precious metal, the chemical element of atomic number 79, valued esp. for use in jewelry and decoration, and to guarantee the value of currencies
  • A deep lustrous yellow or yellow-brown color

value of gold today

Gold hairpiece of deity

Gold hairpiece of deity
family treasures: golden repousse hair accessory of religious deity

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Ornaments make up most of the life savings of many Khampa families, and so play an important role in Tibetan families’ lives as well as in announcing the social status of the wearers. They are saved up for over many years and handed down for centuries from generation to generation within families. Until very recently, these families were nomadic and have to move every few months because of the snowy seasons in the Himalayas, so Khampas have always needed to store their wealth in portable form. So being unable to store wealth in the form of estates or houses or land or in a bank, for millenia wealth has been stored in art, precious fabrics, and particularly into ornaments.

Their culture is very conservative about the type of ornaments favored: for thousands of years jewelry made from amber, turquoise and coral have been worn because the stones are believed to hold spiritual power. Gold and silver and also naturally found in Tibet, and the use of these metals by the wealthy also goes back thousands of years. Their ornaments are very chunky, bold and colorful. While the gold earrings that Khampa women wear may have cost them a year or maybe several year’s of their salary, ornaments carry so much social status in their society that probably didn’t have to think twice about the purchase.

To the Khampa people these ornaments have the utmost sentimental value and significance, because they are the physical remnants of generations of their ancestors hard work or success. what these people are wearing is not just their life savings, but also their family history and treasure. this culture has been around for millenia – archeological finds from the 1st century AD in the khampa area unearthed ornaments that are essentially the same in design and materials as today’s are. there are also beliefs that the stones provide good luck and protection to disease. dyed red coral is the most sought after stone, but interestingly tibet is very very far from any oceans – all the coral is imported by traders! Religious symbols from Tibetan Buddhism frequency form the designs of pieces, however archeological finds show that the role of ornaments in Tibetan society and peoples’ lives long predate the arrival of Buddhism in Tibet. Indeed the beliefs of spiritual protection being provided by coral, amber and turquoise probably originate from the ancient shamanic Bon religion.

Autumn Gold, My Heart Sings

Autumn Gold, My Heart Sings
(I’m going backwards! Sorting through autumn pictures, and posting a few that remind us what a lovely season it is)

Golden leaves of the Ginkgo tree frame the uplifted roof corners of the T’ing pavilion atop the rock mountain.

The Ginkgo is known as a living fossil, its history going back 270 million years. Ginkgo trees were already fossilized in the Jurassic age. The first specimen brought to North America was a gift to Thomas Jefferson for his gardens at Monticello. Today, it grows around the world as a popular landscaping tree.

The leaves reminded scholar-Officials in ancient China of an open fan, that symbolically spreads good luck. On the practical side, it was valued as a memory enhancer (appreciated by those young scholars when taking the rigorous exams of their day!).

Recent studies indicate it does not delay dementia or Alzheimer’s, but some studies show it may enhance general cognitive ability – the jury’s still out on this one.