I already have the original version so am wondering what improvements are in the Gold version. Anyone know?

From game card: "The Guild Gold includes the original game plus its expansion pack."
What the expansion contains quoted from Moby Games
Die Gilde: Gaukler, Gruften & Geschütze
This is the add-on to Europa 1400: The Guild. It extends the main game by:
•Three new occupations (travelling entertainer, churchyard warden , tailor)
•Three new titles
•Five new offices and other privileges for your sphere of influence
•Three new levels
•Three new locations like the cannon tower
•the Emperor's town Nuremberg, which is larger than all other towns
•Impressive artifacts and arcane séances
•New graphics and character animations
•T&L support
•More sound recordings and extended movie sequences

OK, thanks and sorry for taking so long to get back to this thread. I decided against the Gold version and bought The Guild2 Gold instead, which I haven't played yet so can't comment on.

Ouch.
I suspect you'll hate that one.
First Guild is MUCH better.

The Guild 2 improves on many aspects of the game, and, AND it's easily moddded compared to 1. That alone makes it better IMHO. With the many user mods moving the gameplay to the way it should be it becomes a great game.

I still play both 1 and 2 (2 is heavily modded) quite a bit.

The Gold version fixed some important bugs. The most notable being you could actually execute people in court.

I've bought Guild 2 and a few expansion packs, but the gameplay changed a lot between them. if i recommend one to my friends I'd recommend Guild 1 not 2. 2 was more of an RPG.