Treasured Gold

Treasured Gold!

Mankind has given Gold since ancient civilization a special place of actual and symbolic value and has been used as money for exchange, as store value, as valuable jewellery and other relics. Its value is conclusively a social construction and its lustrous and metallic qualities, relative scarcity and the difficulty of extraction have added to the perception of gold as a valued commodity. There are the ones, that believe gold has no particular value believing it’s a barbaric relic which no longer holds the monetary qualities of the past, and that believe that paper currency is the money of choice in modern economic environment and that gold is only a material to make jewellery.

Then there are the others, that believe that gold is an asset with various intrinsic qualities which makes gold unique and necessary for investors to hold in their portfolios and that investors have as many reasons for investing in gold as they do vehicles to make those investments.

Most of the people however agree that Gold always had value as a component of decorative jewellery, a sometime currency and as an investment. Ultimately, part of gold’s appeal is the mystery of its appeal. The finance and investing world likes to sneak around the word “mystery” and there is always a place for science, art and even mystery.

Gold can stimulate a subjective personal experience, but it can also be objectified if it's adopted as a system of exchange and this makes it unique as a commodity. Gold can be something quantitative and tangible, like money, and at the same time, it can embody something ephemeral, like a feeling, even a host of feelings. So, part of the reason that gold has always had value lies in the psychology and nature of the human experience and something about the warmth of gold speaks to our human need for comfort and nurture and makes it therefore a “feel good” metal.

Our ancestors were faced with coming up with a method of exchange that was easier to implement than a barter system. A coin is one such medium of exchange. Of all the metals in the periodic table of elements, gold is the logical choice. We can rule out elements other than metals because a gaseous or liquid currency is not very practical from the standpoint of personal portability.

This leaves metals like iron, copper, lead, silver, gold, palladium, platinum, and aluminium but Iron, Lead, Copper, and Aluminium are metals, prone to corrode over time so they would not be a good value in terms of storage, which is required of coins; and keeping the metals from corroding is labour-intensive. Aluminium feels very light and unsubstantial, not ideal for a coin-metal that could invoke feelings of security and value.

The "Noble Metals", Platinum or Palladium are reasonable choices because they are mostly non-reactive to other elements, that is, produce little corrosion, but they are too rare to generate enough coins to circulate. To assign value to a metal, it must be somewhat rare, so that not everyone is producing coins, but available enough so that a reasonable number of coins can be created for commerce whereas Gold and Silver do not corrode and can be melted over a flame, making it easy to work with and stamp as a coin. Silver and Gold are beautiful metals that are easy to form into jewellery, and both of these precious metals have their own devotees in fine jewellery circles.

Although silver can be polished and textured in multiple ways so as to catch the light and the eye, there remains no metal quite like gold which is the mysterious metal. Unlike other elements, Gold naturally possesses a subtle array of unique and beautiful colours. The atoms in Gold are actually heavier than in silver and other metals. This attribute makes the electrons move faster, which in turn allows for some of the light to be absorbed into the gold, a process that Einstein's theory of relativity helped to determine.

Maybe, gold's physical quality of absorbing light, makes its special shine come literally from within itself.

If the modern paper-money economy were to collapse, gold may not have immediate use, as panic sets in and people fight for their basic needs, but it will eventually. Humans prefer the company of other humans over complete independence since it is easier to work in groups than to attempt to live off the land on our own.

This human trait forces us to find ways of working together, which in turn leads us to find ways of exchanging goods and services easily and efficiently.
Gold is the logical choice for this exchange. If disaster strikes, such that paper money and the system that supports it no longer exists, we will revert to gold. Arguably, gold is one of the only substances on earth with all of the qualities for the job, including sustainability.

Consequently, from an elemental perspective, Gold is the most logical choice for a medium of exchange for goods and services. The metal is abundant enough to create coins but rare enough so that not everyone can produce them. Gold doesn't corrode, providing a sustainable store of value, and humans are physically and emotionally drawn to it. Societies and economies have placed value on gold, thus perpetuating its worth.

Gold is the metal we will fall back on when other forms of currency don't work, which means that Gold will always have value in bad as well as good times.