It's an idiom, conveyed to signify that the person is valuable, useful and important.
But let's take that statement literally. What is your worth in gold?
Using our handy weight calculator, an average person, weighing 11 stone / 70 kg would be worth £3.28 million at the current spot price if they were composed entirely of 24 carat gold. That's the monetary value of someone who is worth their weight in gold!
If such a 24 carat gold person were sent or presented to us at Gold Traders UK, we would offer £3.14 million for him - 96.3% of the spot price. That's some of the best rates paid for gold in the country.
Unfortunately, there's only 0.2 mg of gold in the average person. That makes a person's actual value in gold roughly £0.009395 - barely a penny.
So, before you get excited about your worth in gold, we regret to state that it would require approximately 5,000 people to be harvested to extract one gram of gold from humans (155,500 humans per troy ounce). Not really a feasible or economical option, and we would discourage you from showing up with body bags to a gold trader seeking to sell them for their scrap gold content. We guarantee that will end with you in a prison cell!
Density of Gold
Considering gold is one of the most dense elements known to man, we suspect if a person was composed entirely of gold he or she will likely be a fraction of the size compared to their normal bodily shape.
The density of an average person is 0.985 g / cm3. The density of gold is 19.3 g / cm3, which is 19.59 times greater. Therefore, it's reasonable to speculate that a person made entirely of gold could be almost 1/20th of the size than what they would be if they were normally composed of flesh and bone.
If you're a bored mathematician and think you'd be able to give us an accurate figure as to how big a 70 kg gold person would be then we'd love to hear from you.
What is more valuable per gram than gold?
Gold has survived the test of time as a protector of wealth, but that doesn't mean other items are currently more valuable than it. Some of these items are perfectly possible to obtain, others will likely kill you if you possess them. Here's a simple list with their respective prices per gram:
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/gold-caviar-most-valuable-substances-234634103.html
Palladium - £26.06 per gram
A “yo-yo” platinum group metal which has recently been cheaper than gold, but has shot up in price over the last 4 years due to industrial demand and geopolitics.
Rhodium - £351 per gram
Rare platinum group metal which has also shot up in price over the last 4 years. Currently the most valuable commodity metal ever sold.
Da Hong Pao Tea - £1,000 per gram
Also transliterated as Ta Hung Pao tea, the original leaves from the six mother trees on Wuyishan Mountain, Fukien Province are officially protected by the Chinese government as a state treasure.
Meteorites - £800 per gram
Rare meteorites can fetch up to £815 per gram, but dependent on the material found in it.
Coral Snake Venom - £3,250 per gram
Allegedly has health benefits. Researchers are studying it to see if it has antibacterial and antiviral properties.
Plutonium - >£3,600 per gram
Valuable radioactive metal, but consider watching the Sky TV series “Chernobyl” before thinking of acquiring some. Not put off? You can supposedly buy some here. Good luck trying to import it legally into the UK.
Tritium - £24,400 per gram
Rare radioactive isotope of hydrogen, used in self-powered lighting (it glows green in the dark) and thermonuclear bombs.
Red Beryl - £40,800 per gram
Rare gemstone, also known as Bixbite. Only found in the United States, with the Utah Geological Survey stating an estimated rarity of 1,000 times less than gold.
Red Diamonds - >£4 million per gram
Not to be confused with blood diamonds. Rarest diamond type, mostly found in Kimberly, Western Australia.
Antimatter - ~£2,000 trillion per gram
A few nanograms have only ever been produced by humans and is effectively priceless. Would destroy everything around it - one gram has the same power as a nuclear bomb. Gives new meaning to the term “volatile asset”!
What was more valuable than gold?
We mentioned earlier that gold has survived the test of time as a protector of wealth. Here's another list of items which used to be more valuable than gold, with some of them spectacularly losing their value once the bubble burst…
Saffron (2010s)
Was briefly more expensive per gram than gold in the early 2010s. Although certain classes of saffron will still sell with a higher price tag, most consumers will apparently be able to source high-quality saffron at around £7 a gram. Not a simple story though, as the market is awash with counterfeit and adulterated saffron.
More reading: The Price of Saffron.
Platinum (2000s)
Consistently more expensive than gold during the early 21st century commodity boom, but has been cheaper than gold since late 2014.
Dutch tulips (1630s)
Tulip Mania is perhaps the most famous bubble. Certain flower bulbs will sell for more than their weight in gold, but not typical Dutch tulips.
Cryptocurrency (2021-current)
Might be slightly unfair to include cryptocurrency here as it can't technically be weighed, however the main cryptocurrencies such as ethereum and bitcoin are currently caught in a vicious bear market.
Mississippi Company / South Sea Company (1720s)
Classic speculative bubbles which sparked a frenzy in the share prices for both companies. At their peak the paper shares for each company were worth 10,000 livres and 1,000 pounds respectively before crashing.
Collectable Comic Books (1985-93)
Not as well known as other bubbles, but speculative hysteria took over the Comic Book industry in the late 1980s with some collectable comics selling for over a million US dollars. That's approximately £10,000 per gram at 1990 exchange rates. Resulting crash nearly took the whole industry down with it.
Royal Mint Great Engravers Coin Series?!
We joke, but certain collectable coins can fluctuate in value wildly, which was perfectly illustrated in The Royal Mint's Great Engravers Coin Series. The resale market may have calmed down slightly for some of the later releases such as the Gothic Portrait and Gothic Crown, but we have seen prices for the silver Una and the Lion coins in excess of £88 per gram as of December 2022.
