Its softness and relatively low melting point mean that it is easily worked into exquisite jewellery. However, for strength and durability, gold in jewellery is most often alloyed with small amounts of other metals. The beauty of its colour and lustre and the fact that it does not tarnish, in addition to its workability, has made gold the premier metal for objects of adornment over the ages. Its rarity meant it became a symbol of wealth and power. In jewellery, gold is often mixed with other metals to produce alloys of different colours.
White gold is an alloy of gold with silver, palladium, nickel and copper.
Yellow, green and red golds are produced by alloying gold with copper and silver in different proportions. Gold has long been a medium of exchange and investment. It is widely used to produce coins such as the Australian Nugget. Gold coinage has been in use since around 550 BC when King Croesus in the ancient kingdom of Lydia, struck the first 'coins' - small, more or less round tablets of gold. It was not long before many city-states in the area now covered by Turkey and Greece were issuing their own gold money.