I've read most of the threads on gold I think so if this aspect of the metal has already been spoken of and I've missed it, sorry.

I don't see the colour, scratches and reflectivity of gold as a problem and I can't be setting up an 85 node syste for it because I don't know the materiel room that well.

The problem with gold artifacts is the shadow and dirt on them, particularly old gold. I do believe (so far) that we need very little effort in the materiel foom to produce gold if we use a texture map. That does mean burned in highlights but an image produced from them will not be technically perfect. It can depend on where the high lights are placed though and the image maps for even complex artifacts can be produced using poser itself in a matter of minutes  so it is not really a draw back. 

The image of the complex prop illustrated is the colour I wanted it to be but I have kept the bumps low.