[PHOTOS] 15 Things you didn't know about gold

1. The world’s largest producers of gold, which encompass nearly one-third of total production, are China, the United States and Australia.

2. The United States Federal Reserve holds roughly 7,385 tons of gold, which equates to 530,000 gold bars.

3. According to Christian folklore, sailors used to wear gold earnings in the event they drowned so when their bodies washed up on foreign shore they could pay for a Christian burial.

4. Our bodies contain about 0.2 milligrams of gold, most of it in our blood.

5. Although flavorless, gold is edible (E number 175*) and is used in foods to endorse high value. The E number is code for substances that can be used as food additives for use within the European Union and Switzerland.

6. The average smartphone has roughly 10 troy ounces of gold per ton.

7. A 28-gram nugget of gold is rarer than a five-carat diamond.

8. The South African gold rush started in Johannesburg in 1885 when an Australian miner, George Harrison, found gold while digging up stones to build a house.

9. 49 percent of all gold mined today is made into jewelry.

10. India will likely remain the top gold consumer in 2015, according to the World Gold Council. It overtook China in 2014 as the world’s biggest gold consumer.

11. The largest known gold nugget was found in Central Victoria, Australia in 1869. Nicknamed the ‘Welcome Stranger’, it weighed approximately 2,316 troy ounces.

12. Gold has countless medical contributions. Along with being used in treatments for cancer and rheumatoid arthritis, gold is highly resistant to bacteria and can be used for implants in high-risk areas of infection. Gold is also used in diagnostics, including pregnancy tests and HIV progression.

13. The world’s oceans are estimated to contain roughly 16,534 tons of gold.

14. In 2007, the Royal Canadian Mint unveiled a 220-pound, 99.999 percent pure gold coin at the mint in Ottawa Ontario, Canada.

15. The visor on an astronaut’s helmet is coated with a thin layer of gold to filter out the sun’s harmful rays.