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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Drusus, post: 1635522, member: 6370&quot;]Yes, I do understand gold has been used as money, at least as far back as the Lydians...and before that it was valued as a decorative item for those with the real wealth, the land, its resources and the people...but there is no money without an issuing authority thus here must be such a thing as government (or some authority) and a market for money to exist and markets are seldom unregulated by these authorities that have existed long before the first gold coin was minted. To these men other resources were all important and gold was a luxury reserved for themselves. Since golds only practical purpose for most of human history is as money... It is just a relatively worthless metal without an authority to back it in the role of currency and a market that assesses its value and accepts it as currency. </p><p><br /></p><p>Like a lot of things, what was accepted by the ancients isn&#039;t always the best way and things are re-evaluated and change. I certainly wouldn&#039;t want a doctor to operate on me using medical standards from ancient Lydia so why can&#039;t their monetary policy not be questioned? Today, gold is not accepted as payment and is not used directly to purchase anything. It must be bought with the currency backed by the authority and it can be sold to gain that currency...like any other commodity. The only difference is that, unlike most commodities its value is not assessed on its real value but also a higher perceived value. As Inflexion said, without that higher perceived value, people would still want gold but it would probably be valued much lower.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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