Why is gold so valuable? What have been the reasons that have made this metal enjoy a higher consideration than others throughout the history of the human being?
To answer the previous questions there are different answers: gold has been and is so valuable for different reasons and, at the same time, for the sum of all of them. Below are listed and described the main reasons that gold is considered so valuable.
Fundamental characteristics of gold
Gold is soft metal and yellow, whose chemical symbol is Au, from the Latin aurum.
One of the most important qualities of gold is that it does not oxidize, so it is considered a noble metal, and its appearance does not vary with the passage of time and exposure to the environment.
Another property that differentiates gold from other metals is its golden color. Since always, we all have the image of great treasures formed by jewels and shiny gold coins despite their age.
In addition to the above, another characteristic of gold is its scarcity, enough to make it difficult to obtain because it is not easy to find. It is not therefore a metal that everyone can easily have in their possession.
All this makes gold an excellent choice to use in jewelry, much appreciated both today and throughout history. Becoming the main raw material with which most of humanity's jewels have been made is undoubtedly a clear proof of its value over other materials.
The value of gold today
From a modern point of view, based on its chemical classification, there are a series of characteristics and properties that make gold an ideal metal for its use as currency, unlike the other 118 elements that make up the periodic table.
The complete explanation made by a reputed professor of chemistry can be read in the following article on the value of gold.
In addition to the aforementioned, some important ideas about the impact of abandoning the gold standard by most of the current currencies and their impact on the value of gold at the investment level are pointed out.
Despite the conclusions presented in the article, today it is common belief that gold is a safe value in which to invest, especially in times of crisis
The value of gold in the past
However gold has been so valuable for a long time, much more than we could imagine ...
For this reason the arguments of modern science are not enough to explain the special value of this metal for thousands of years.
Since antiquity all cultures and civilizations have considered gold as something valuable and have even adored it.
Gold has been the cause throughout the history of great wars and migratory movements as during the discovery of America or during the gold fever.
Discarding the explanations of chemistry or modern economics as reasons for gold has been considered so valuable in the past, it is necessary to resort to other alternative explanations to explain that gold has been the cause of so many struggles on our planet .
Everything seems to indicate that since gold is not very useful neither in hunting, nor in construction, nor later in wars, its importance in the ancient world was closer to religion.
Gold has been considered from the past the metal of the gods and was used to worship them through the construction of different tools, tools or divine representations made of this metal.
Later it was the kings who used gold as a symbol of authority and status granted by the gods themselves.
In this way, throughout history, gold was associated with the possession of a special status, something that not everyone can wear, so its use in jewelry is very old and possibly dates back to the ancient religions.
Gold is also the metal that has always been used to represent the sun.