Scanning Tunnelling Microscopy was used to examine the surface structure of gold films and supported gold particles. It was found that freshly evaporated gold films have a relatively smooth surface morphology. However, after 1 hr of annealing, a series of dendrites were clearly visible on the surface of the films. With additional annealing, the dendrites got larger, until the film broke into particles. STM images of annealed gold particles showed that annealed gold particles larger than 150 Å have a polyhederal shape and a smooth surface morphology. However, the surfaces of the particles smaller than 60 Å remained highly corrugated even after a long anneal. We believe that the difference in morphology of large and small particles may have some profound implications in supported metal catalysis.