Humans have been using gold as both a medium of exchange and a store of wealth for thousands of years. That’s not surprising given the shiny yellow metal properties: it’s virtually indestructible, impervious to corrosion or decay; it’s readily melted into portable forms such as coins, jewelry, and bars; and its supply is limited – which means that, unlike government-issued money, gold’s worth can’t be diluted by inflation or fresh currency creation.
While other forms of cash – including paper money – eventually proved more useful as day-to-day currency, their value was directly linked to a state’s physical gold reserves under a system which persisted until relatively recently. Only in the 1970s was this international “gold standard” completely abandoned and gold’s price allowed to float f
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