Gold is a rare and precious metal that has been valued by humans for centuries. It is estimated that all the gold that has been mined throughout history and that has not yet been mined can fit in just over three Olympic swimming pools with a total of 244,000 metric tons. This scarcity is an enigma that is exclusive to gold as a commodity. Gold can be both quantitative and tangible, like money, and at the same time, it can embody something ephemeral, such as a feeling or a series of feelings.Part of the reason why gold has always had value lies in the psychology and nature of human experience.
People have made gold valuable due to its ability to add value at the portfolio level. In the 16th century, the discovery of South America and its vast gold deposits led to a huge fall in the value of gold and, therefore, a huge increase in the price of everything else. The Gold Standard assured people that the value of their money did not depend on their country's ability to pay debts, their international position or a thousand other things they didn't understand, but only on their ability to produce gold.Gold is also more valuable than silver because it is available in much smaller quantities than silver. Pure gold is highly resistant to aging and tarnishing, so most hominid-era gold still survives today, living on your smartphones, computer chips, and watches.
Despite the fact that some minerals today are more valuable than gold, nothing beats it in versatility, prestige and aesthetic value. Platinum is much rarer and more expensive than gold, but has fewer industrial uses. Also, because it looks silver to the untrained eye, most people still prefer a gold watch instead of a platinum one.To get gold you have to be good at war Be able to organize an extensive human labor force to extract it Mastery of global supply and logistics routes Be able to command guards who will watch your gold, and not steal it Have the know-how to get gold out of the earth, which is expensive and cumbersome. In the 17th century, many English citizens had homemade mints in which they marked their gold coins with the percentage of pure gold they contained.As gold became more entrenched in world currencies, many countries began to back up their money with the amount of gold their country could produce.
Gold does not rust or tarnish and will react almost without anything. If all earrings, each gold sovereign, the small traces of gold on each computer chip, every pre-Columbian statuette, every wedding ring were melted together, it is estimated that there would be only a cube of 20 meters left.Gold is the metal we will turn to when other forms of currency don't work, which means that gold will always have value in difficult and good times. So what made gold so valuable and expensive? Surprisingly, it is not so much about the properties that gold has but about those that have no other elements. One of the most striking things about gold is how incredibly difficult it is to reach (and hold on to it once you have it) and the different things you have to master to get it.
