The Golden Billboard

The Golden Billboard

On May 26, Rethink Canada created the world’s first gold covered billboard to promote Science World’s new summer exhibit – “Treasure!”. Covered in over $6000.00 worth of gold leaf, the board had a security guard posted around the clock for the two days it was on display at the entrance to Granville Island.

The Golden Billboard is now at Science World and will remain on display until Labour Day.

• The board is covered in 2 troy ounces of real 22 carat gold leaf
• The gold covers an area of over 200 square feet has a value of about $2400 Canadian. The specialized manufacture required to turn it into gold leaf brings the value up to just over $6000.
• The golden board is the first of its kind anywhere in the world and took four weeks of painstaking work by Canada’s top gilder, Brian Dedora.
• The billboard was generously donated by Rethink Canada as part of their ongoing support of Science World.

Super Nerd Stuff

• ‘Troy’ ounces are a unit of measure used for precious metals, gems, and gunpowder. Troy ounces are slightly heavier than imperial ounces and there are 12 Troy ounces to one Troy pound. (1 Troy ounce = 31.10 grams, 1 Imperial ounce = 28.35 grams).
• A ‘carat’ measures how pure the gold is. 22 carat gold is 91.6% pure gold
• Gold has a number of very useful properties: it is the most malleable of all metals, it will never rust or tarnish, and it is a good conductor of both heat and electricity.
• The word “gold” comes from the old English Anglo Saxon word “geolo”, meaning yellow.
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  View the embedded image gallery online at:
  http://www.scienceworld.ca/ads/the-golden-billboard#sigProGalleriade14d4c580