"Weird gold sticks, 1.25 inches long, potentially used for electronics in the 70s?"
A: "I think they’re the leads from Caddock MG series resistors, presumably the ends that get clipped off after soldering the resistor on. For reference, this is what a circuit board looks like before you trim down the extraneous leads. That would make them gold plated nickel with a copper core, which definitely sounds like something a jewelry maker might want to bring home from her day job in electronics."
The new guy laid that brick.