How Much Does Gold Weigh?

[SPoots]

I know this sounds like a Pratchett question, but I swear it is a legitimate question.

I currently have a story where a character ends up lugging his savings around after it has been converted into gold. I want to know how much that would weigh, just so I know he wouldn't tear his arms off at the mere attempt and that this whole plot is completely stupid.

Any idea how much roughly £2000 worth of gold might be?

 

[Cathbad]

At today's prices, that would be about... two troy ounces?

 

[Paul_C]

This site says 1oz of gold is £975.68 - Gold Price in Gbp per Troy Ounce for Last Week so just over 2 ounces.

 

[SPoots]

That's perfect, thank you both. I looked up the sites but to be honest couldn't make head nor tail of it. Numbers are a major blind spot for me.

 

[Dave]

Any idea how much roughly £2000 worth of gold might be?

That really depends on the time period of your story. £2000 is worth considerably less today that it used to be.

Gold is very heavy, heavier than Lead but they have similar atomic weights. If you have handled Lead (if you are of a certain age, Lead used to be common as water pipes or fishing weights) then that would give you some idea.

Today it is sold to investors in kilobars that weight 1Kg, but the standard gold bullion bar held by central banks is the Good Delivery bar which weighs 12.4 kg according to Wikipedia, so too heavy to carry.

If you google the price today 1kg of Gold is worth $40,854 so about £31,302.

So, in today's prices you could easily carry £2000 worth of Gold. It would only be about 64g or 3.32 cubic centimetres in volume. That's just over half a teaspoon, I think!

Edit: Other answers came while I was writing.

 

[SPoots]

That really depends on the time period of your story. £2000 is worth considerably less today that it used to be.

Gold is very heavy, heavier than Lead but they have similar atomic weights. If you have handled Lead (if you are of a certain age, Lead used to be common as water pipes or fishing weights) then that would give you some idea.

Today it is sold to investors in kilobars that weight 1Kg, but the standard gold bullion bar held by central banks is the Good Delivery bar which weighs 12.4 kg according to Wikipedia, so too heavy to carry.

If you google the price today 1kg of Gold is worth $40,854 so about £31,302.

So, in today's prices you could easily carry £2000 worth of Gold. It would only be about 64g or 3.32 cubic centimetres in volume. That's just over half a teaspoon, I think!

Edit: Other answers came while I was writing.

I think that half a tea spoon fact can be classified as "mind blown".

 

[chrispenycate]

The golden sovereign, the one pound British coin, weighed about a quarter of an ounce. So £2000 would weigh more or less thirty pounds - not something to be slung about without thinking about it, but quite carriable (engineers aproximations throughout).