GOLD-Leaf, or Beaten Gold, is gold beaten with a hammer into exceeding thin leaves, so that it is computed, that an ounce may be beaten into 1600 leaves, each three inches square, in which state it takes up more than 159,052 times its former surface. See GOLD-LEAF.
It must be observed, however, that gold is beaten more or less, according to the kind or quality of the work it is intended for; that for the gold-wire drawers to gild their ingots withal, is left much thicker than that for gilding the frames of pictures, &c. See GILDING.