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<p>[QUOTE="medoraman, post: 1281591, member: 26302"]Gold was known to humans for tens of thousands of years before coinage. The fact that it was a "precious" metal was due to both the desirability due to its unique properties as well as its rarity versus other metals. They never "knew" total earth rarity, they just reacted to its scarcity at the time. Other metals have changed dramatically in value over time. Platinum was pretty cheap when the Russians used it for coinage. The only demand really besides coinage was as a based metal to gold plate to counterfeit gold coins. It was not until industrial uses were found for it that its true rarity greatly increased its value.</p><p><br /></p><p>Your scenario actually happened in a way. The Washington Monument is topped with a "precious" metal more valuable than silver at the time, a new wonder metal called aluminum. A decade later they discovered a new way to refine it and it became cheap like today.</p><p><br /></p><p>Chris[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>
[QUOTE="medoraman, post: 1281591, member: 26302"]Gold was known to humans for tens of thousands of years before coinage. The fact that it was a "precious" metal was due to both the desirability due to its unique properties as well as its rarity versus other metals. They never "knew" total earth rarity, they just reacted to its scarcity at the time. Other metals have changed dramatically in value over time. Platinum was pretty cheap when the Russians used it for coinage. The only demand really besides coinage was as a based metal to gold plate to counterfeit gold coins. It was not until industrial uses were found for it that its true rarity greatly increased its value. Your scenario actually happened in a way. The Washington Monument is topped with a "precious" metal more valuable than silver at the time, a new wonder metal called aluminum. A decade later they discovered a new way to refine it and it became cheap like today. Chris[/QUOTE]
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