Jump to content

Why Do Humans Like Gold


Recommended Posts


Perhaps the perception of shiny Gold is a lasting and high value - a wealth that also represents the seal of governance, status in society ... and power.

It is also interesting how many different civilizations appreciated gold as a standard of wealth .., or as a currency of the highest value...

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

22 hours ago, Mark Gillespie said:

A currency only has value because we, as a society, decide that it does.

This single line in the whole article pretty much says it all.  Many societies never appreciated gold as a currency.  That line with the supporting arguments on its scarcity, stability and workablity are what makes gold valuable.  Nowadays's gold also has an intrinsic value for society in its use's where'as back in time it had little or no value for day to day activities.  Only is social status to support its value at the farm or in the court.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 months later...
On 4/2/2019 at 11:47 AM, Mark Gillespie said:

That leaves just two elements - silver and gold.

Both are scarce but not impossibly rare.

(Mark is quoting this article:  https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-25255957) This is an exaggeration.  On the earth, gold is amongst the nine rarest naturally occurring elements (by mass).  Those 9 (Tellurium, Platinum, Gold, Ruthenium, Palladium, Rhenium, Iridium, Rhodium, and Osmium) combined add up to less than any other single element.  Silver is in the next rarest group (Cadmium, Silver, Mercury, Selenium, Indium, Bismuth).   See the following graph from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abundance_of_elements_in_Earth's_crust

image.png.a02dcdaf1a44d206c885cd28de0e4d25.png

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

How many of these metals were know 2000 years ago?

Gold and Silver

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It’s deeper than that in my opinion. Rick kind of touched on it. Gold captured the imagination of separate cultures around the world, many of which that had no contact with the others. When that person thousands of years ago found that gold nugget, it was obviously different. It was very heavy and it captured the glow of the Sun God... perhaps a piece of the sun fallen from heaven? It would have not taken long to discover it never rusted, never tarnished... it is immortal. Again, god like and there has been a connection between gold and religion since the earliest days. The early artisans discovered it is the most malleable of metals that can be drawn, hammered, and formed in ways no other metal can. The relatively low melting point meant it could be easily cast whereas no human created heat could melt something like platinum until the 1800s.

But mainly I think it’s that glow when held in sunlight and it’s incorruptability. Gold speaks to something in us like no other metal. Gold is magical.

  • Like 7
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On July 31, 2019 at 8:06 AM, Steve Herschbach said:

 Gold captured the imagination of separate cultures around the world, many of which that had no contact with the others. When that person thousands of years ago found that gold nugget, it was obviously different. It was very heavy and it captured the glow of the Sun God... perhaps a piece of the sun fallen from heaven? It would have not taken long to discover it never rusted, never tarnished... it is immortal. Again, god like and there has been a connection between gold and religion since the earliest days. The early artisans discovered it is the most malleable of metals that can be drawn, hammered, and formed in ways no other metal can. The relatively low melting point meant it could be easily cast whereas no human created heat could melt something like platinum until the 1800s.

But mainly I think it’s that glow when held in sunlight and it’s incorruptability. Gold speaks to something in us like no other metal. Gold is magical.

 

I think you just wrote the opening paragraph for that book your supposed to write :smile:

strick

  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Rhodium is bright, shiny, beautiful and very rare. It has jewelry and industrial uses. Only in the last few years has it taken off in price. It did not become a monetary metal as it was not known as a separate metal in antiquity being mixed with the other platnum group metals. As a store of wealth rhodium is not a bad choice but gold still wins for historic reasons. Central bank, especially China and Russia, are again stock piling gold. The US dollar will eventually lose its unique reserve currency status and slowly have to share the honor with other currencies or be part of a basket of currencies as the World Bank has discussed.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...