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Memory Alpha
For color, please see gold (color).

Gold is a metallic element, number 79 on the periodic table. Items covered in gold were said to be gilded. (TOS: "I, Mudd")

Though once considered very valuable, by the 23rd century the Federation considered the mineral almost worthless, except for decorative and functional purposes. (TOS: "Catspaw"; TNG: "The Last Outpost", "Time's Arrow"; VOY: "Muse")

When the fictional character of Rumpelstiltskin arrived on Deep Space 9, he thought he was called upon to spin straw into gold. (DS9: "If Wishes Were Horses")

Fort Knox on Earth was the largest repository of gold bullion in Earth's history. With the transition to the New World Economy during the late 22nd century, money became obsolete and Fort Knox was turned into a museum. (VOY: "Dark Frontier")

The planet Janus VI was a major source of gold and other minerals for the Federation in the 23rd century. (TOS: "The Devil in the Dark")

Value[]

After traveling back to 1893 San Francisco, Data sold his communicator for three dollars in order to ante in to a local game of poker. (TNG: "Time's Arrow")

In 2266, according to Harcourt Fenton Mudd, lithium crystals were worth thousands of times their weight in gold. (TOS: "Mudd's Women")

Around 2365, two Ferengi made a failed attempt to break into the vault at Fort Knox. (VOY: "Dark Frontier") The Ferengi valued gold as a precious commodity until the 2370s, after which its use to them consisted of little more than a medium for suspending latinum in. It still remained valuable to some primitive civilizations. (DS9: "Little Green Men", "Who Mourns for Morn?"; ENT: "Acquisition"; TNG: "The Last Outpost", "Captain's Holiday", "Rascals")

When bidding for the Barzan wormhole in 2366, the Ferengi offered to match anyone's best offer and to add a bag full of small gold ingots. (TNG: "The Price")

In 2368, Par Lenor offered 20,000 Ludugial gold coins for the empathic metamorph Kamala to Ambassador Briam. The offer was refused. According to Par Lenor, Ludugial gold was the purest in the galaxy. (TNG: "The Perfect Mate")

Appendices[]

Background information[]

Dialogue in TNG: "The Last Outpost" and "The Perfect Mate" suggested that, at least as late as 2368, Ferengi considered gold valuable. In "Little Green Men", Quark says to a 20th-century Human that "gold is good" while discussing what humans could trade for advanced Ferengi technology. However, by the time of "Who Mourns for Morn?", Quark described gold as "worthless", at least in comparative terms to latinum.

According to the script for "Emissary", the Cardassians playing dabo in Quark's were winning gold.

External links[]

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