This article considers the presence and absence of mercury, and why in different social arenas where gold features, mercury can become either pervasive or elusive. To substantiate this argument, the article offers two contrasting examples: (1) presentation strategies at Pacific Seaboard gold rush heritage sites, and (2) the background to the Minamata Bay tragedy and the Minamata Convention’s subsequent framing of mercury use in artisanal and small-scale gold mining in the Global South. By unpacking these divergent social histories of mercury use and its consequences, the article identifies the current disconnect between different histories of mercury, and the problematic consequences of this disengagement.