Gold Vs iPhone

Most precious item carried on daily basis

For more than a decade now the most precious item carried by the modern human is their phone, and by precious we don’t mean the usefulness of the modern phone’s features as connectivity with other people or its mighty camera quality rather we mean it’s marked up value that nowadays could go up to even $2,349 CAD or about $1,750 USD for the latest and greatest iPhone.

Majority of people don’t even realize that the very device that some of you might be using to read this very article is or at least once was worth that much. That could be because naturally most people know that a day will come when the current device they own will become outdated and in need of replacement.

So what’s all this about; a jewelry brand talking about a phone! Well that is because if you’re not a person that owns and wears fine jewelry or watches that contain real precious metal this could be the most expensive item that you carry with you on a daily basis.

Therefore the most precious item you carry is a useful mini “block” sized device today that will eventually be replaced by another mini block in the future.

Let’s now transition to precious metals

Transitioning to precious metals in particular one that everyone is familiar with which is gold. In order to keep with the topic of this article we’re specifically talking about modern way of carrying gold around and that is by wearing fine gold jewelry (that doesn’t include the plated steel junk that most modern brands sell).

With gold it could easily shift the most precious item you carry from the phone to the fine jewelry item(s) that you might choose to wear for the day, which could be a chain, pendant, ring or a watch.

This doesn’t just change the item it also changes the form factor from the mini block sized device to something as small as a pinky ring that could be worth as much or based on the karat grade even more than that replacement-bound device.

What’s the connection between the two?

If you’re not aware Gold has a melting point, which is the temperature at which the precious metal will turn to liquid in order to be reshaped or mixed with other alloys. That temperature is 1,064 °C or 1,943 degrees Fahrenheit. Which is one of the highest melting points of any metal.

Now let’s just imagine you have two melting pots (in the case of metals with very high melting temperature it’s a crucible) and put a gold bar or jewelry in one and the latest and greatest iPhone in the other and wait until the temperature reaches 1,064 °C.

If we pour out the crucible with the gold metal inside well as you might’ve guess we’ll get a liquefied version of that bar or jewelry piece and it’ll be as valuable as the original one.

If we now pour out the crucible containing the iPhone… if you’ve guessed only plastic and junk would be poured out in liquid form you’d be close, only what will be there to your surprise is a bit of liquefied precious metals among them of course would be a very tiny bit of gold that might’ve been used for the device’s circuitry. So in the end you get about 1-2% worth of the original value of the iPhone.

In conclusion the point isn’t to undermine the usefulness and power of the modern phone which has so many useful features & uses that improve our daily lives, but to just think of it as that a pricy tool that’s assists us on a daily basis. Whereas gold in return is a pricy asset that could very likely increase in value given some time and even after melted at a temperature of 1,064 °C it will still hold its value.