History Main / GoldFever

* One ''Wiki/RPCAuthority'' log concerns [[http://rpcauthority.wikidot.com/rpc-126 RPC-126]], "The Root Of All Evil", which is a set of cursed NaziGold bars that induce this trope in [[BrownNote any living thing that sees them]]. The victims obsessively clutch the bars to themselves, [[DeathByMaterialism as they meld with their flesh]] and [[VampiricDraining slowly drain their life force]]. The only way to interrupt the process is to remove the affected flesh with power tools, and if allowed to fully consume the victim, the gold expands up to a kilogram in size before producing a coin with similar effects and the inscription "Greed Begets Greed."

** ''Literature/MakingMoney'': The chief cashier develops a glassy stare and unnerving facial tics whenever he gets on the subject of gold, and finds the idea of banking without a gold standard tantamount to heresy. Gold is SeriousBusiness where he's concerned. The odd thing is, it's not even ''his'' gold he's obsessing over. He's just elevated his belief in the prevailing economic system to something akin to a religious conviction. He also suffers from a rather bad case of perfectionism to the point of SuperOCD, and when he finds out he's made a minor error in his figures he [[FreakOut "[has] a nasty turn"]] and locks himself in the vault... [[spoiler:which doesn't actually contain any gold, because the previous owners of the bank had quietly sold it off without telling anyone and pocketed the cash and ''nobody noticed'', proving Moist's point about the value of gold being powered by "ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve".]] [[FromBadToWorse He did not]] [[HeroicBSOD take it well]].

* ''ComicBook/DeCapeEtDeCrocs'': Cenile's main reason for going to the moon is hearing that gold grows on trees there. This is in fact the case (the Moon is a weird place), and he ends up staying in open ground during a goldstorm, turned into a gold statue.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSmurfs'' has this as one of Gargamel's driving purposes for wanting to catch Smurfs, since they are part of the formula for creating the Philosopher's Stone. In "All That Glitters Isn't Smurf," Papa Smurf uses this against Gargamel by luring him toward a pile of fake gold coins made from locks of Smurfette's hair so that he could rescue the Smurfs that were captured by the evil wizard.

** Gild Tesoro, the main villain of ''Anime/OnePieceFilmGold'', had an obsession with gold. Furthermore, his Devil Fruit allowed him to manipulate and shape gold any way he wanted to. Furthermore, he was able to "Awaken" his Devil Fruit, allowing him to do even more with it. His obsession with gold was the result of his DarkAndTroubledPast making him obsessed over never being weak and thus equating wealth with power.

** Eneru was already crazy when he arrived on Skypeia, but part of his master plan involves hoarding every last chunk of gold he can get his hands on, not out of greed, but because he has [[PsychoElectro electricity powers]] and gold is an excellent conductor, allowing him to construct a massive self-powered airship to take him to the moon.

* In "The Singing Bell" by Creator/IsaacAsimov, the map to the titular Bells is, at the beginning of the story, in the hands of a person claiming their collector had a fatal accident. As soon as he finishes helping Peyton load the Bells onto the spaceship, he gets shot with a blaster. Mind you, the total worth of the cache, if we assume the prices of when the story was written, is 70 million 2022 dollars ''at least''.

** ''[[Film/TheHobbitAnUnexpectedJourney An Unexpected Journey]]'': Thrór, king of Erebor and Thorin's grandfather, is shown in flashbacks to be so obsessed with gold that it's even described to be a "sickness" and his obsession with filling his treasure rooms with enough gold to build a castle out of it is implied to have attracted Smaug to Erebor in the first place. While the movies don't show this, Thrór had one of the Dwarven rings which likely contributed to this.

** Thrór, king of Erebor and Thorin's grandfather, is shown in flashbacks to be so obsessed with gold that it's even described to be a "sickness" and his obsession with filling his treasure rooms with enough gold to build a castle out of it is implied to have attracted Smaug to Erebor in the first place. While the movies don't show this, Thrór had one of the Dwarven rings which likely contributed to this.
** In ''[[Film/TheHobbitTheBattleOfTheFiveArmies The Battle of the Five Armies]]'' [[spoiler:Thorin proves to be at least as nutty as his grandpa, degenerating swiftly into a paranoid recluse who would rather die than give away a single coin. Thankfully he snaps out of it during the final battle.]]
** Interestingly, a line from Balin implies that treasure that's been part of a DragonHoard carries a genuine curse called "Dragon Sickness" that drives the treasure's new owners to behave much like a dragon - paranoid, greedy and murderously possessive. [[spoiler: While Thrór fell to dragon sickness on his own, it's hinted by Thorin's behavior and even his speech mannerisms becoming more like Smaug that the decades he spent sleeping in the hoard had cursed Erebor's treasures and that curse was consuming Thorin.]]

"''Funny thing about gold; the the metal itself don't change much. Heat it up, melt it down, bury it in the ground, the gold itself never changes. It sure changes'' '''people''', ''though''".

* ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'': The Nether Update introduces the Piglin mob. Normally hostile towards the player, Piglins become neutral when the player dons any piece of gold armor, and the player can barter gold ingots in exchange for items and blocks. Attempting to mine gold in the Nether with Piglins nearby will provoke them, even if the player is wearing gold armor.

* In "The Singing Bell" by Creator/IsaacAsimov, the map to the titular Bells is, at the beginning of the story, in the hands of a person claiming their collector had a fatal accident. As soon as he finishes helping Peyton load the Bells onto the spaceship, he gets shot.

* Due to the state of economy in the 2009-2013 time frame, there's been something of a gold fever in the investment market, as gold is seen as a reliable investment when stocks are going down. As a result those who had good deposits of the stuff before the 2009 recession are easily raking triple profits to what they paid for it in the first place. In August 2011, the price of gold rose higher than the price of ''platinum''. That's this trope taken UpToEleven. Even after the gold crash of 2013, it only hit a low of $1200 per Troy ounce, which was still 1.5 times the price it had in 2008.

* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'': Dragons suffer from this, acquiring and nesting on the classic DragonHoard. At first it was believed that they suffered from a magpie-like obsession with shiny objects, but ''Draconomicon'' reveals that they are just as likely to hoard ''any'' valuables, even things like paintings or rugs. It seems that any object other creatures consider precious, a dragon will too, even if they have no use for them other than bedding. You could theoretically encounter a dragon sleeping on a stamp collection, while other works speculate that an evil dragon would covet a pauper's handful of copper pieces simply because they mean so much to him.

"''Funny thing about gold; the the metal itself don't change much. Heat it up, melt it down, bury it in the ground, the gold itself never changes. It sure changes'' '''people''', ''though''.

* ''Series/{{Monk}}'': In "[[Recap/MonkS2E15MrMonkGetsMarried Mr. Monk Gets Married]]", Gold Fever is the main motivator behind two murders committed 125 years apart.

* ''Flim Flam!: Psychics, Unicorns and Other Delusions'': The author documents his trip to Cuzco, Peru, to investigate claims made in Erich von Däniken's ''Gold of the Gods''. Randi tells of meeting a Father Carlo Crespi, who is mentioned in von Däniken's work, and of handling a scrap of gold belonging to the Father:

* ''Literature/{{Octopussy}}'' involves a former officer who, at the end of WWII, had smuggled a cache of NaziGold from where he was stationed, after murdering the mountaineering guide who got him to the hiding place.

--->'''Daffy:''' I can't help it, I'm a greedy slob! It's my hobby.

* ''VideoGame/{{beatmania}} IIDX 14 GOLD'' is, as the title implies, gold-themed, and its theme song has DJ YOSHITAKA singing lines such as [[TitleScream "IIDX GOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLLDDDD!"]] and "[[{{Engrish}} Make it]]! [[MoneyFetish Make money]]!"

** ''WesternAnimation/FourteenCarrotRabbit': Claim-jumper Yosemite Sam discovers Bugs gets a "funny feeling" whenever he's near gold, and naturally tries to exploit the latter's talent. Hilarity ensues.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Droopy}}'': ''Grin and Share It'' (1957) has Droopy and Butch as miners who have been close friends for years, despite their mine having never paid off. Then Droopy hits a big vein. Butch spends the rest of the episode trying to kill Droopy to get all the gold.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheLeprechaunsChristmasGold'': In the beginning, Ditty Doyle sees Blarney Kilikilarny's gold stash and undergoes the "I'm rich! I'm rich!" part of the fever...up until a whack from Blarney calms him down.

* ''Film/TarzanAndTheValleyOfGold'' sends the villain to his willing end by having him smothered by a roomful of gold dust, triggered when he greedily yanks a golden skull out of the wall.