Which metal is softer, gold or lead?

What do you mean by softer? Lead is more malleable.

Malleable is what I meant, thanks mib. good word, malleable.

Malleability is the degree to which (or ease with which) materials can be beaten into sheets.

Coming from Malleus - latin for a hammer!

The most malleable metal and the most ductile is Gold - Gold Leaf Thin sheets of gold) have been produced to 5 (millionths of an inch thick, and wires of diameter 2 x 10(to the -4).
Source ; Guiness Book of Records

I'd have thought that Malleus meant MALLET !

Mallet is a type of hammer, innit? intersting info, Fossie.

Lead is softer. You can scratch the surface of it with your fingernail, and thick pieces of lead can easily be bent into curves. It's not easy to do this with gold.

Gnomon, you have obviously never rubbed your fingernail over pure 24 carat gold, it is definitely softer than lead.
Rings and most other jewelry are only 9, 14 or 18 carat gold (37.5%, 58.5% or 75% gold content - the rest at least 1 other metal - see below) because of this in order that they do not get easily damaged or wear away very quickly.

I bought a small 24 carat pure gold ingot and because it is so soft, it is supplied inside a 14 carat frame (like a picture but loose) to stop it being bent just by handling it.

yellow gold contains silver and copper
rose gold contains copper
white gold contains nickel, palladium, platinum and zinc
green gold contains silver and either zinc or cadmium