Comment by djtango

I think gold's chemistry actually is why gold has been and remains a store of value.

It is rare, inert, malleable, has a low melting point and has a distinct unique colour.

All of these are quite useful for being a store of value:

- inert: gold from 10000 years ago is basically exactly the same

- malleable: it is easy to subdivide for coinage (compare with diamonds for an extreme example)

- low melting point: easy to purify (and melting temp is a decent purity check)

- distinct colour: less useful now but being so distinct from other metals makes it easier to spot vs the many silvery coloured metals

The funny thing is that all these store of value properties also make it less useful: inert means it's not reactive and has fewer forms/compounds

Malleable, lower melting temp and rare makes it a poor choice for typical metal usages...