Discontinuous gold films with up to 4.0 nm nominal thickness were deposited on five different polymer substrates using a resistively-heated evaporation source. images of gold particles from these films were created with low-voltage scanning electron microscopy and were analyzed with a digital camera and computer-processed image analysis. On all five substrates, growth was island-like, and the increase of surface coverage progressed at a similar rate, approximately proportional to the cube-root of nominal thickness. For a fixed amount of deposited gold, the size, shape and density of particles were characterized for each composition of polymer substrate. The rates of particle growth and coalescence were different on each polymer surface and were correlated to the surface energy of the polymer substrate.