Why is gold important?

[kathryn d]

I'm sure there are some people on SS who can help me with this.

To me gold is just a metal they make jewellry with.


IF..and I say again...IF country A has 66% (I'm making up numbers here) of the world's mined gold and the other countries decided it was no longer fashionable to make jewellry from it, and wanted nothing to do with it, does it really matter?

Other than jewelry and gold teeth...is there a reason we need it in technology?

Edit: Does it only have value, because of how others view it.
Similar to my paintings may be unique, but have no value, but a painting by Picasso does...because other people would want his?

 

[Aaron_C]

Gold is a store of value, something tangible compared to fiat currency which is what the world uses today.

As for technology - it is used in transistors/wires etc because it has ok conductivity and does not rust (most important)

 

[Ausprop]

keep in mind tho that salt (as in 'salary') use to hold a similar status - value is in the eye of the beholder!

 

[kathryn d]

keep in mind tho that salt (as in 'salary') use to hold a similar status - value is in the eye of the beholder!

That's what I'm wondering about gold.
If an 'unpopular' country had a lot of it, and the rest of the world wanted to devalue it, is there any real reason we need it.

 

[marty998]

Oz history will tell you rum was the currency of choice for a while.

Gold is shiny and looks nice....and there's not a lot of it (comparatively speaking to other base metals). You need something rare for the purpose of "storing value".

If it were not rare it would defeat the purpose of being a store of value.

 

[spludgey]

Gold is shiny and looks nice....and there's not a lot of it (comparatively speaking to other base metals). You need something rare for the purpose of "storing value".

If it were not rare it would defeat the purpose of being a store of value.

That's true, its only value lies in its scarcity. That's why it's sought after for jewellery too, to let other people know that you can afford something rare.
Other than that it has limited uses in electronics for plating contacts, but nothing that would make it valuable.

The same goes for diamonds, they are mainly being worn as jewellery because of their rarity. Otherwise more people would wear moissanite rings which actually have a higher refractory index than diamonds.
I think this will seen with the arrival of cheap synthetic diamonds.

 

[zed_kid]

After the nuclear apocalypse we’ll be using coke bottle caps as currency anyway, so stock up now before the commies push the button