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<p>[QUOTE="medoraman, post: 4187605, member: 26302"]If you want to know the history, I have read that gold was not innately valuable to humans as some here assume. They were taught to value it, since its unique malleable qualities, along with its unique color and reflectiveness made it singularly attractive to early priests of various religions. Since the priests valued it, and accepted it as high value gifts to "the gods", lay people started valuing it. This information spread amongst adjoining populations, until the entire middle east valued gold highly. Then this same attraction to first priests, then rulers, spread throughout the known world, along with the "knowledge" that gold is both rare and very valuable. Rare and valuable begets valuable as long as massive new deposits are not found. Gold IS relatively rare in the earth.</p><p><br /></p><p>This is how I have heard it explained from those who know more about the subject than I. The same books say that silver was never as demanded from priestly caste, since it was not a unique color and not as rare. Therefore, silver valuation was always tied more to functional value, as it is extremely useful in a wide variety of uses known to the ancients. Since both metals had "value" known to everyone, both were concentrate bits of wealth, both did not degrade easily over time, and both were very easy to strike, it is extremely logical they were the cornerstone of coinage as invented by the Lydians.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>
[QUOTE="medoraman, post: 4187605, member: 26302"]If you want to know the history, I have read that gold was not innately valuable to humans as some here assume. They were taught to value it, since its unique malleable qualities, along with its unique color and reflectiveness made it singularly attractive to early priests of various religions. Since the priests valued it, and accepted it as high value gifts to "the gods", lay people started valuing it. This information spread amongst adjoining populations, until the entire middle east valued gold highly. Then this same attraction to first priests, then rulers, spread throughout the known world, along with the "knowledge" that gold is both rare and very valuable. Rare and valuable begets valuable as long as massive new deposits are not found. Gold IS relatively rare in the earth. This is how I have heard it explained from those who know more about the subject than I. The same books say that silver was never as demanded from priestly caste, since it was not a unique color and not as rare. Therefore, silver valuation was always tied more to functional value, as it is extremely useful in a wide variety of uses known to the ancients. Since both metals had "value" known to everyone, both were concentrate bits of wealth, both did not degrade easily over time, and both were very easy to strike, it is extremely logical they were the cornerstone of coinage as invented by the Lydians.[/QUOTE]
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