Gold, also called golden, is an orange-yellow color which is a representation of the color of the element gold.

The web color gold (also referred to as orange-yellow) is sometimes referred to as golden in order to distinguish it from the color metallic gold. The use of gold as a color term in traditional usage is more often applied to the color "metallic gold" (shown below).

The first recorded use of golden as a color name in English was in the year 1300 to refer to the element gold and in 1423 to refer to blonde hair.

Metallic gold, such as in paint, is often called goldtone or gold-tone. In model building, the color gold is different from brass. A shiny or metallic silvertone object can be painted with transparent yellow to obtain goldtone, something often done with Christmas decorations.

Variations

Gold (metallic gold)

At right is displayed a representation of the color metallic gold (the color traditionally known as gold) which is a simulation of the color of the actual metallic element gold itself—gold shade.

The source of this color is the ISCC-NBS Dictionary of Color Names (1955), a color dictionary used by stamp collectors to identify the colors of stamps—See color sample of the color Gold (Color Sample Gold (T) #84) displayed on indicated web page:

The distinctive sheen of a metallic color cannot be indicated on a computer screen as the web color display process has no mechanism for indicating metallic or fluorescent colors.

The first recorded use of gold as a color name in English was in the year 1400.

Web color gold vs. metallic gold

The American Heritage Dictionary defines the color metallic gold as "A light olive-brown to dark yellow, or a moderate, strong to vivid yellow."

Of course, the visual sensation usually associated with the metal gold is its metallic shine. This cannot be reproduced by a simple solid color, because the shiny effect is due to the material's reflective brightness varying with the surface's angle to the light source.

This is why in art a metallic paint that glitters in an approximation of real gold would be used; a solid color like that of the cell displayed in the box to the right does not aesthetically "read" as gold. Especially in sacral art in Christian churches, real gold (as gold leaf) was used for rendering gold in paintings, e.g. for the halo of saints. Gold can also be woven into sheets of silk to give an East Asian traditional look.

More recent art styles, e.g. Art Nouveau, also made use of a metallic, shining gold; however, the metallic finish of such paints was added using fine aluminum powder and pigment rather than actual gold.

Satin sheen gold

At right is displayed the color satin sheen gold. This is the name of the color of the Starfleet command personnel uniform worn by Captain Kirk of the Starship Enterprise in the TV show and movies Star Trek.

Vegas gold

Displayed at right is the color Vegas gold.

Vegas gold, rendered within narrow limits, is associated with the glamorous casinos and hotels of the Las Vegas Strip, United States. Vegas gold, along with navy blue, is one of the official athletic colors for the University of Pittsburgh Panthers as well as the Madison High School Eagles (MI), Canisius High School Crusaders and the Dyersburg High School Trojans. It is also one of the official colors of the University of Central Florida Knights and the Pittsburgh Penguins, along with black and white. Although in the case of the Pittsburgh Penguins the color previously had been yellow.

Old gold

Old gold is a dark yellow, which varies from light olive or olive brown to deep or strong yellow. The widely-accepted color old gold is on the darker rather than the lighter side of this range.

The first recorded use of old gold as a color name in English was in the early 1800s (exact year uncertain).

Maroon and old gold are the colors of Texas State University's intercollegiate sports teams. Old gold and black are the team colors of Purdue University Boilermakers intercollegiate sports teams. The Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets wear white and old gold. The New Orleans Saints list their official team colors as black, old gold and white.

Pale gold

The color pale gold is displayed at right.

This is the color called gold in Crayola crayons since 1958.

Golden poppy

Golden poppy is a shade of gold that is the color of the California poppy--the official state flower of California--the Golden State.

The first recorded use of golden poppy as a color name in English was in 1927.

The source of this color is a color sample taken from the Wikipedia article on the California poppy.

Sunglow

The color sunglow is displayed at right.

This is a Crayola crayon color formulated in 1990.

Sunglow is also called "MU Gold" by the University of Missouri and is used as the official school color along with black.

Golden yellow

Golden yellow is the color halfway between amber and yellow. It is a color that is 87.5% yellow and 12.5% red.

The first recorded use of golden yellow as a color name in English was in the year 1597.

Golden brown

At right is displayed the color golden brown.

The first recorded use of golden brown as a color name in English was in the year 1891. Golden brown is commonly referenced in recipes as the desired color of properly baked foods.

Source of color: ISCC-NBS Dictionary of Color Names (1955)--Color Sample of golden brown (color sample #74)(matches color called golden brown in A Dictionary of Colorby Maerz and Paul):

Golden in nature

Protista

• The golden algae or chrysophytes are a large group of heterokont algae, found mostly in freshwater.

Plants

• The golden poppy and goldenrod are popular flowers to cultivate in horticulture.

Animals

• The golden eagle is a Northern Hemisphere bird of prey.
• The golden retriever is a medium sized breed of dog that is one of the most popular companion animals.
• The golden toad was an amphibian that used to live in Costa Rica that is now extinct.
• The goldfish is was one of the earliest fish to be domesticated, and is still one of the most commonly kept aquarium fish and water garden fish.

Golden in human culture

Alcoholic Beverages

• Beer is poetically called the golden brew.

Architecture

• The Golden House was a 300 room palace in which the Roman Emperor Nero held parties organized by his official party planner Petronius.

Art

• Lions are colored golden in art as a symbol of monarchy. The golden Lion was the symbol of the British Empire and is on the Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom.
• The artist Gustav Klimt often used the color metallic gold in his paintings.
• Metallic gold was often used in Byzantine art.
• The golden ratio is often used in art, graphic design, and architecture, as well as appearing in nature among living things.

Awards

• The highest award for achievement in many fields is called the Gold medal.

Business

• In finance, golden symbolizes of course the element Gold, the standard of monetary value throughout human history.
• In monetary policy, the gold standard is a monetary system in which the standard economic unit of account is a fixed weight of gold.
• Gold is a popular investment throughout the world.
• In stock market terminology, a golden share is a nominal share which is able to outvote all other shares in certain specified circumstances, often held by a government organization, in a government company undergoing the process of privatization and transformation into a stock-company.
• In marketing, the term Gold Standard refers to a product that so satisfies the consumer that it functions as a standard for all other products of the same type.
• In human resources, a business executive or professional who has an employment contract that gives them a generous severance pay is said to have a golden parachute.
• In executive compensation, a golden coffin is a package of benefits that continues to accrue to the heirs of a CEO even after the CEO has died.
• In advertising for the Union Pacific Railroad in the 1950s, the southwestern states of the United States served by the Union Pacific were collectively called The Golden Empire because the railroad's diesel engines were and are colored golden, red, and black. Ads with maps showing the Union Pacific's Golden Empire colored golden were placed in many popular mass-circulation magazines.

Cosmetology

• Blonde hair in women (or sometimes men) is sometimes referred to poetically as golden. It is estimated by geneticists that the gene for blonde hair originated about 3000 BC in the area now known as Lithuania among the recently arrived Proto-Indo-European settlers of the area (Lithuania is still the country that has the highest percentage of people with blonde hair); it is thought the gene spread quickly through sexual selection into Scandinavia when that area was settled because men found women with blonde hair attractive.

Culture

• A past era during which the highest quality art was produced or in mythology during which humans were believed to have lived a Utopian lifestyle, is called a golden age.

Drugs

• The Golden Triangle and the Golden Crescent are areas in Asia where large quantities of opium are grown.
• The Golden Triangle of Mexico is composed of the three Mexican states of Sinaloa, Durango, and Chihuahua, where Mexican drug lords engage in a murderous rivalry for control of the drug importation routes north into the United States.

Education

• In K-12 education, when students do well on an assignment, the teacher sometimes gives them a gold star by their name on the classroom bulletin board.

Exploration

• On 26 September 1580, Sir Francis Drake returned to England, becoming the second person to circumnavigate the globe. His ship was called the Golden Hinde.

Fables

• The Goose That Laid the Golden Eggs is one of many fables attributed to Aesop.

Film

• The Golden Globe Awards are American awards for motion pictures and television programs, given out each year during a formal dinner.
• The Golden Raspberry Awards have been given out each year since 1980 for the worst Hollywood productions and performances.
• The Golden Turkey Awards is a 1980 book by film critic Michael Medved and his brother Harry Medved. The book awards the fictional "Golden Turkey Awards" to films that the Medveds feel are poor in quality.
• The Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival is the most important national film festival in Turkey. Since 2005, the festival is accompanied by the International Eurasia Film Festival.

Food

• Common golden foods include maize (the grain that is called corn in America), sweet potatoes (their interior flesh), butternut squash, and so-called white wine and "white" grape juice.
• When fried chicken or waffles are done just right, they are said to be golden brown.
• The Yukon Gold potato is popular for making mashed potatoes because of its buttery flavor.
• Golden Oreos are composed of vanilla instead of chocolate cookies with a vanilla cream filling.
• Golden raisins are dried grapes that have been treated with sulfur dioxide and flame-dried.

Gemstones

• South Sea Pearls, which have historically been cultured in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, in the countries of Myanmar, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Northern Australia but mostly attributed to the former thalassocratic Sultanate of Sulu have a gold colored variety from the Pinctada maxima Pearl oyster. This golden pearl is the national gemstone of the Philippine Republic This can now be manufactured in the laboratory at a much lower cost.

Genetic engineering

• Golden rice is a variety of rice produced through genetic engineering to biosynthesize the precursors of beta-carotene (pro-vitamin A) in the edible parts of rice.

Geography

• California is called the Golden State because California is where the California Gold Rush began in 1849.
• The Golden Gate (the strait that connects the Pacific Ocean to San Francisco Bay), was named on 1 July 1846 by explorer John C. Frémont who wrote, "To this Gate I gave the name of Chrysopylae, or Golden Gate; for the same reasons that the harbor of Byzantium was called Chrysoceras, or Golden Horn."
• The Golden Gate Bridge is cited by the American Society of Civil Engineers as one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World.
• In Cantonese, Northern California is called Gum Shan (Gold Mountain) (Mandarin: Jin Shan) because of the gold fields the Forty-Niners travelled to and because Chinese Americans regarded it as a place to get rich by starting their own business.
• Golden, Colorado, a suburb of Denver, is most noted for being the headquarters of the Coors Brewing Company. Also, appropriately, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, which does research on solar energy, is located in Golden, Colorado.
• Before Ghana became independent in 1957, it was a British colony called Gold Coast.
• In ancient Sanskrit, the area we now call Southeast Asia (including both mainland Southeast Asia and the area now known as Maritime Asia [i.e., Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines) was referred to by the people of ancient India as Suvarnadvipa, which means Golden island (suvarna=golden; dvipa=island). The name Suvarnadvipa comes originally from the fact that there were rich gold deposits on the island of Sumatra. The Greek geographer Ptolemy mistakenly applied the Ancient Greek name for gold, Chryse, to the adjacent country of Malaya.
• In the traditional national anthem of Iran, Iran is called our golden country. The first lines of the anthem are: "Oh Iran, our golden country, your land is the wellspring of art. Let the thoughts of your enemies be far from you."
• In Texas, the area in the southeastern portion of the state is often called the Golden Triangle for its great economic wealth in the petroleum, natural gas and chemical industry.

Gerontology

• A senior citizen is sometimes called a golden ager.

History

• The Golden Gate (Porta Aurea) was the Imperial entrance gate of the Walls of Constantinople and the largest among the 55 gates around the city walls which protected Constantinople (present-day Istanbul). It had three arches and was plated in solid gold.
• The Golden Horde was a Mongol khanate that ruled southern Russia in the 13th century.

Interior Design

• The Queen’s Bedchamber in the Grand appartement de la reine in the Versailles Palace is decorated in the color gold. This room was where Marie Antoinette wife of King Louis XVI of France slept.

• Golden is a warm color that can both provide not only a bright and cheerful feeling but also a somber, traditional, and religious aura. Golden tends to go well with earth colors, but it can also enrich a palette of red or burgundy.

Law

• The Lei Áurea (Golden Law), adopted on May 13, 1888, was the law that abolished slavery in Brazil.

Legends

• The capital city of Atlantis is said to have been called The City of the Golden Gates. Because of this, (and because of the existence of the Transamerica Pyramid, which is like the pyramid that is said to have existed as one of the major structures in the City of the Golden Gates, it is thought by some New Age people that a number of the inhabitants of San Francisco (the City by the Golden Gate) are reincarnated from Atlantis.

Literature

• The Golden Ass by Lucius Apuleius, written in the second century AD, is a classic satire of life in the Roman Empire
• The Golden Legend, compiled around the year 1260 by Jacopo da Varagine is a collection of fanciful hagiographies or lives of the saints, that became a late medieval bestseller.
• In the science fiction space opera the Lensman series heptalogy by E.E. Smith, in Volume One of the series, the 1948 book Triplanetary, the Golden Meteor is the insignia that was initially adoped as the symbol of the Galactic Patrol. (It was later replaced by the Lens of Arisia.)
• The Golden Apples of the Sun is a 1953 collection of thirty-two of the most famous short stories by Ray Bradbury.
• The Golden Man is a 1954 science fiction short story by Philip K. Dick. The story is set in a post-apocalyptic future, where the existence of potentially powerful mutants has become a reality.
• The Golden Notebook is a 1962 novel by British Nobel Prize-winning author Doris Lessing.
• Heart of Gold is a fictional starship in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series by Douglas Adams.
• In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows the Harry Potter polyjuice potion turned "clear, bright gold".

Magic

• The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn was an occult order founded in 1888.

Marriage

• The 50th wedding anniversary is called the Golden Anniversary and one is expected to give gifts made of gold to a couple celebrating that anniversary. By extension, the 50th anniversary of any important event is called the golden jubilee.

Military

• The Gold Star Mothers Club is a club in the United States to provide support for mothers that have lost sons or daughters in military combat.

Music

• A gold record is a recording that achieves sales of a million copies or more.
• The song The Golden Road to Unlimited Devotion is one of the most popular songs on the 1967 debut album of the Grateful Dead, The Grateful Dead.
• Golden is an American rock band formed in 1993.
• The Gold Experience is an album released by Prince (his stage name at that time being an unpronounceable symbol) on September 26, 1995.
• Golden Millennium was a glam rock revival supergroup formed in 1999.
• Golden is a 2004 album by the space rock group Failure.

Mythology

• In Greek mythology, Jason and the Argonauts sailed to Colchis to find the golden fleece.
• King Midas, in Greek Mythology, was said to have the Midas touch, i.e., the ability to turn everything into gold (the golden touch). This ability became a curse for him after he turned his daughter to gold, and he was cured by Dionysus.

Nazi Germany

• The Gold Honor Cross of the German Mother was awarded to German women who bore the Third Reich eight or more children.
• The first 100,000 members of the Nazi Party had the right to wear the Golden Nazi Party Badge.

Panelology

• Comic book published between 1938 (the first ones) and 1945 are called Golden Age comic books.
• In Uncle Scrooge comic books, Scrooge McDuck searches throughout the world and even outer space for gold and other treasures to further increase his wealth. Paintings of Scrooge by Carl Barks often show him with piles of golden money. In one Carl Barks story, The 24 Karat Moon, Scrooge McDuck builds a rocket ship, travels to the asteroid belt and finds an asteroid made of solid gold: [33911]
• The Golden Helmet is a Donald Duck comic strip story written by Carl Barks in July 1952. Don Rosa wrote a sequel to The Golden Helmet, called The Lost Charts of Columbus.
• Nova is a fictional character colored golden sometimes appearing in the Marvel Comics universe with the Silver Surfer.

Parapsychology

• Psychics who claim to be able to observe the aura with their third eye report that great spiritual teachers usually have golden auras.
• People who have gold auras are said to be those whose pure intellect is applied to abstract philosophy and mathematics.

Philosophy

• In the philosophy of Ancient Greece, the golden mean (moderation in all things) was accepted as a basic tenet of most Greek philosophy.

Politics

• A king or queen's crown is usually gold.
• Golden Liberty was a form of aristocratic democracy practiced in Poland from 1569 to 1795.
• The Golden Stool is the throne of the king of the Ashanti people in Ghana.

Professions

• A person who attains notoriety at a young age in a their chosen profession is called a golden boy or a golden girl.

Religion

• The color golden is associated with Buddhism:
  • Statues of Buddha are usually painted metallic gold, are made of the metal gold, or have gold plating.
  • Theravada Buddhist monks wear saffron robes, a color close to golden.
  • The Shwedagon Pagoda, also known as the Golden Pagoda, is a Buddhist pagoda in Yangon, Burma that is plated in solid gold.
  • The Golden Pavilion is a notable Buddhist temple in Kyoto, Kinki, Japan.
• The Doctrine of the Golden Mean is a chapter in the Li Ji, one of the Four Books of Confucianism.
• The Secret of the Golden Flower is an important religious text in Daoism.
• The Golden Temple in Amritsar, Punjab, India, is the holiest site of the Sikh religion.
• The Golden Mosque in Samarra, Iraq, a Shiite Muslim holy site constructed in 944, was the target of the Golden Mosque bombing on 22 February2006.
• The Golden Calf of the Old Testament, in Judaism and Christianity, is generally thought to symbolically represent the false worship of the god Mammon (i.e., wealth), instead of the true God of the Bible, Jehovah.
• The color golden has an important place in the Latter Day Saint movement:
  • The Golden plates are claimed to have been a set of engraved plates, bound into a book, that Joseph Smith, Jr. said was his source material for the Book of Mormon, a scripture of the Latter Day Saint movement.
  • LDS Temples are commonly topped with a gold statue of the Angel Moroni on its tallest tower.

• In the New Age Ascended Master Teachings of the Church Universal and Triumphant (which are based on Theosophy) it is believed that the Master Kuthumi has a special organization around him called the Order of the Brothers of the Golden Robe that is dedicated to the enlightenment of humanity through the second ray of wisdom.
• In Scientology, The Gold Base is the informal name of the international headquarters of the Church of Scientology, located on a parcel of land near Hemet, California. The area is the home of Golden Era Productions, the media and publications division of the church.
• In all world religions, the golden rule is promulgated as a basic standard of human conduct.

Role playing games

• In Dungeons & Dragons, the gold dragon is one of the metallic dragons.

Sorority colors

Sororities which use gold as an official color include:

• Alpha Sigma Tau
• Delta Phi Epsilon

Sports

• A gold medal is a medal awarded to the first place finisher of contests (typically athletics competitions) such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc.
• Fans of the National Football League will note the Pittsburgh Steelers, Washington Redskins, and Green Bay Packers as having gold as a color. The gold they use, however, is a distinctly more yellow color (akin to the non-metallic web color version) than the traditional "old gold" used by the New Orleans Saints, San Francisco 49ers, and Saint Louis Rams. In both cases, the color is referred to as "gold".
• In Major League Baseball, the Milwaukee Brewers and Pittsburgh Pirates both use gold as one of their team's primary colors.
• In the NBA, the Cleveland Cavaliers, Washington Wizards and the Boston Celtics use "old gold" as an accent to their primary colors wine, blue and green, respectively. The Los Angeles Lakers, Indiana Pacers, Denver Nuggets, Golden State Warriors, Memphis Grizzlies, New Orleans Hornets and Oklahoma City Thunder also use gold as an accent color, although the shade is mostly yellowish in appearance.
• In the NHL, the Pittsburgh Penguins use gold as one of their primary colors. The shade of gold has changed over time from the traditional, metallic gold, to a more yellowish gold, and back to the metallic shade. The Boston Bruins also use the yellow shade of gold as a primary color.
• The Golden Gloves is the name given to annual competitions for amateur boxing in the United States.
• The Gold Coast is an area just south of Brisbane, Australia, that is noted for its excellent surfing.

State Decoration

• The Congressional Gold Medal is the highest civilian award which may be bestowed by the United States Congress, the legislative branch of the United States government.
• The Gold Star was the highest state decoration in the Soviet Union and remains so in several post-Soviet states.

Surnames

• Gold (or names containing the word Gold) is a common surname among people of Jewish ancestry of European ancestry (Ashkenazi Jews).

Vexillology

• Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Bosnia, Belgium, Bhutan, China, Colombia, Egypt, Ecuador, Germany, Malaysia, the Philippines Spain, Sri Lanka, Valenzuela, Vietnam are examples of modern nations that use the color golden in their national flags.
• The Holy Roman Empire, which existed from 800 to 1806, had a golden flag with a black double-headed Imperial Eagle on the field, the origin of the use of the color golden in the German and Belgian flags.
• The Byzantine Empire from 1261 until its collapse in 1453 had a flag that had a black double-headed eagle on a field of golden. This flag is still used today as the flag of the Mount Athos autonomous region in Greece. Flag of the Byzantine Empire:
• The Hispanic Flag (Bandera de la Raza) is an ethnic flag that is golden and deep lilac on a white background. It is also used as the Flag of Hispanic America. (This flag is sometimes also called the Flag of the Americas when used on a non-ethnic basis to symbolically represent the combined geographical area of North America and South America together.): [33912]

See also

• Or
• List of colors

References