[WORLD_ENDS_SOON]

One of the colors that seems to have been lost over the past 20 years or so is Quinacridone Gold, denoted by pigment number PO 49. The pigment is part of the family of quinacridone pigments used everywhere, but reportedly this gold hue variation of the pigment wasn't popular enough to sustain production despite being used by artist paint manufacturers. Paint companies typically buy pigments from a relatively small number of pigment manufacturers. From the perspective of pigment manufacturers, paint for artists is a small market in comparison to other uses like the automotive industry. When the pigment went out of production, a watercolor paint company in Seattle, Daniel Smith, purchased the last batch and had a roughly 17 year monopoly on the color. Of course, artists figured out that the pigment was going away and started buying up the last of the stock, and now it is considered an "extinct pigment," no longer available for purchase in any new paint. There is a reformulated "New Quinacridone Gold" that uses a mixture of two pigments (PO 48 + PY 150), but some artists swear by single pigment colors for their more predictable mixing properties.