Gold Exhibit at Chicago Field Museum

Crystallized gold, Leadville, Colo., American Museum of Natural History. © Denis Finnin, AMNH

With the value of gold breaking records daily now is the perfect time for The Field Museum in Chicago to host an exhibit on the precious metal that will explore how the mineral is found, mined, processed, and turned into both beautiful and useful objects. The traveling exhibition opened Wednesday and will run through March 6, 2011.

18K Picasso Gold Brooch,Tiffany & Co., designed by Paloma Picasso Scribble Collection, Graffiti Line, New York, 1988, Tiffany & Co. Archives.

The exhibit will explore gold’s physical properties and examine the history of how cultures around the world have valued the mineral as a status symbol, religious emblem and form of currency.

Gold Earrings, Hellenistic, Greece; c. late 400s-200s BC, American Museum of Natural History. © Craig Chesek AMNH

Cartier shell necklace

More than 550 gold items will be on display—including the largest placer nugget found in the Western hemisphere, the world’s first minted coins (from ancient Anatolia), pre-Columbian jewelry and sacred objects, doubloons retrieved from sunken Spanish galleons and the 2005 World Series Championship trophy.

 The Field Museum is located at 1400 S. Lake Shore Drive. It’s hours are from 9 a.m. till 5 p.m. and is open every day except Christmas.

U.S. Double Eagle $20 gold coin