Why is gold so valuable?

Answer 1

AnswerGold is in limited supply (rare) and is practically indestructible. As such it has been used as money for centuries before bankers took over and tried to pass off paper with numbers printed on it as money.

In Roman times, the king would devalue gold by adding other metal to it. Eventually the citizens caught on to this game.

It's kind of what is happening today with currency. The U.S. for example keeps printing more and more dollars and thus devalues the purchasing power of each dollar in circulation.

If all of the money in the world purchased all the goods in the world, and then you doubled that money, no wealth has been created. You've just lowered the "value" of the money.

That's why it's better to have money as gold as it can't be devalued.

AnswerGold is valuable because it is rare and beautiful. AnswerThe value of gold, like many other things, is artificial. Enough people have "bought into" the idea that it has value that governments and banking organizations all accept the idea. Many (if not most) people also accept this.

Gold is useful in industrial applications, as well as chemical and medical ones. That's real value. Iridium is a thousand times less common in the earth's crust, and it has some cool applications, too. But it costs about half what gold does. What sense does that make?

If metals were priced according to their value in the building of society (and not the applications in jewelry and other vanity-driven investments in excess) iron, which is used in steel making, would head the list. Aluminum and copper would battle it out for second. And you cannot possibly imagine your world without iron, aluminum and copper in it. You wouldn't even recognize it.

Answer

Gold is very valuable in nano technologies and computer production. Gold is a good contact because it doesn't easily corrode