QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Feb 14, 2006 -> 01:53 AM)
Sadly, that wouldn't actually happen...unlike most metals, like Iron, which react with oxygen to give an oxide phase and energy, gold is actually stable at room conditions. For those who understand what it means, the free energy change of the reaction Au + x O = Au2O3 has a positive free energy of formation...which means you literally need to heat it in order to make it rust. This is why, for example, when gold is found in nature, it is actually found as metallic gold, and not found as an oxide, like aluminum which is found as Bauxite for example.
Of course, they might have made the tropies back then out of Iron, at which point none of that would matter. But ours looked nice in gold.
I can't actually believe you took the time to explain that.