Page 203 - DK Children's Encyclopedia

The world’s Golden money
oldest coins The first gold coins were made
were made from by King Croesus in 564 bce. All coins
electrum—a used to be made of precious metals,
mixture of gold including gold and silver. However,
and silver. modern coins are usually made of
cheaper metals, such as copper,
nickel, and zinc.

Sacred manuscripts
were decorated
with gold leaf. Gold leaf
For centuries, gold has been used
to decorate religious buildings,
works of art, and objects. As well
as using the solid metal, gold
can be thinned down into very
fine sheets called gold leaf.
Gold leaf is used to decorate
books and paintings.

A model of
the spacecraft
used in the
1969 moon
landing.

Golden craft
Space scientists use sheets of
gold foil to cover parts of some
spacecraft and satellites they The visors of
send into space. The foil space helmets
protects them by reflecting are coated in a thin
the sun’s harmful rays during layer of gold to
their journey. keep astronauts
The mask was
discovered by cool and safe.
archaeologists
in a burial tomb
in 1876.
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