We used to live & work with a small tribe in far NE Karamoja region of NE Uganda. There IS gold there! The standard measure for exchange among the locals was a little over one inch of gold dust inside the quill from a large feather, vulture IIRC.
They would dig deep into the dry riverbed until they hit they gravel layer, then haul a basin of gravel back to where there was enough water for panning. The wife of a local pastor friend did this to get money to buy food for her family.
From the air, these digging areas were pockmarked with many, many large sand pits. It looked like doodle bug holes, or the dimpled surface of a golf ball!
We never bought any... once the word got out that we were carrying gold, the probability of ambush went WAY up!
:-)
You should have just told them “Silver and gold have I none…”.