Gold is valuable due to it’s non-reactivity thousands of years ago. It’s more or less safe from dissolving or anything like that.
Silver valuable for cutlery due to it’s antiseptic properties.
Salt was also used for currency (hence the word salary) as people used the salt to cure and preserve meat before refrigeration. Obviously salt is not that convenient when it rains…
In prison cigarettes are used as currency…
Gold is used in lots of things. Computer motherboards to satellites and various other scientific applications. It can also be used for making green colored glass. There are numerous alchemy applications.
It was used as currency for a very long time. Only being phased out in England to stop criminal groups from clipping the coins (taking the edge off). You can still buy gold coins however they are mostly for investment.
Gold has also been long sought after for jewelry making. Sure that stainless steel bracelet looks ok but my gold one outshines it any day of the week. And is worth a lot more.
Gold makes a great savings vehicle. Even though there’s been an explosion in the number of places that will hold your gold for you while giving you a digital owners receipt there’s no better feeling than having actual gold on hand. There’s also a fairly decent trading market for unique coins and such.
You know stainless steel was discovered mostly by accident, and in ancient times stainless steel would have been worth a fortune. In fact steel was worth a fortune in the old days. Most people didn’t have them, they had wrought iron at best.
If you want to know why steel was worth a fortune in the old days, try refining them out of clinkers sometimes… it’s extremely labor intensive.
paper Bill’s are way more useful…we need a trade standard. gold lasts, is useful not easily obtained on scale withoutbreal work and looks pretty. As good as any currency base. What would be better?
wood pulp with colors isnt exactly more logical.
Refined steel is a different matter. There is a chemical process now that means they don’t need coking coal however it’s still in its infancy. If that process takes off then I’d say countries like the USA and Australia will return to steel production using factories run by renewables.
Metals and glass all originate from alchemy. It’s actually quite interesting to learn. About how different materials are bonded together to create different metals. Bronze, copper, tin, lead and others are still used to create different types of steel for different types of applications.
This also applied to glass making for a very long time. And is still used in artisanal glass making.
Back to gold. 1oz of 24k gold when flattened out would cover an entire tennis court. I believe lead can be flattened out to the same measurements.
Well no wonder alchemists back then thought they could turn lead into gold… after all it shares some of its properties.
But if anything fission turns stuff into lead…
If you think it’s odd that gold is so valuable, don’t think about the value of diamonds.
Yup. But people are mixing up valuables. there is monetary value. Things like money.
and there is actual value. Heat in cold areas, food for every species, reproduction and so on.
gold has application so it is still actually useful, but is used moreso monetarily. Meanwhile, gold means nothing if people dont have food or freeze to death.
Value is the pinnacle of of the definition of “relevant” with modern day humans.
I forgot how the old saying goes ,but it is something like: XYZ is only worth as much as someone is willing to pay for it. This holds true through our species, all through every other species and throughout our history and probably our future.
So you mean to say every single prison movie ever made has been correct?
Depressed > Cigarettes > Drugs > Escapsim = Human.
Well in prisons where cigarettes are rare, stamps are also used.
Diamond is pointless. Diamond used for work is cheap, mostly because they are useless as gems (they look ugly). They are only valuable because of the diamond cartel.
A massive demand in India for gold wedding dowries is just another factor.
Gold is not in over supply. However, the diamond price is kept artificially high.
Industrial diamond looks kinda like this… not real good looking.
literally dog shit could be worth billions if people collectively decided it had “worth”.
Here’s some diamond powder from aliexpress… really cheap.
It’s actually (theoretically)possible to turn lead into gold with modern technology. Unfortunately the lead would be radioactive and there’s no way to remove that.
Whose a believer in GGP?
Guns, Gold and P…y
Guns let you hunt, protect your family or if you have no morals rob others for food.
Gold you can barter.
P you can breed and increase your tribe
There is value in urine (urea) and poop. Some companies start collecting them and turning them in value added products.