Over time one may have noticed how big the gold looks sitting in the black sands and also how much fine gold there appears to be when panning. It looks as if there is a lot of nice size pieces of flour gold in the pan throughout the black sand and when all the black sand is panned out, a mystical, magical, transformation takes place, the gold shrinks.

   Next, the gold is let to dry in the pan and it shrinks again.

   Now, the dry gold is put in a glass bottle and it shrinks even more.

   Then, the gold is sold and it shrinks on average around 30% of spot price. Ouch!

   This shrinkage must be contagious because if you have to pay taxes on the gold, the paper money shrinks as well.

   Whether it makes you laugh or it makes you cry, it really stinks that gold shrinks.   Ron