What if Silver becomes worthless and Gold

Yes, I do. Nobody will synthesize gold in my lifetime.

All the great minds and compute power in the world have been thrown at this attempt over time to no avail.

Will they find better alloys and conductors through technology? Yes. They won't synthesize gold.

 

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I'd still keep all the gold I have. I don't collect gold only to turn a profit, I like wearing gold and giving gold to women. Funny thing is, now that I'm old I don't have any women to give it to except my wife.

 

Gold and Silver has intrusinc value and will never be worthless. It

has been around thousands of years and has yet to be worth zero.

 

Everything has an intrinsic value

 

You could always try giving it to another woman but you'd probably lose the wife and I'm sure she'd take all your gold, silver and anything else of value in the ensuing divorce.

 

Silver and gold will never become worthless as long as there is a demand for boat anchors.

 

I was referring to goods. I know all things for the most part has intrinsic value within.

 

What would be their motivation ? Lets spend hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars trying to figure out a way to synthesize gold so that the stuff we just synthesized would be worthless.

 

could just be a by product of other tech. gold isn't just metal is good for conductivity and anti corrosive properties. plenty of reasons to want more of it.

 

I don't see why gold can't be reproduced through synthetic means. It would be extremely difficult and would likely require the use of a fusion reaction and possibly a massive explosion (think about the supernovas that brought us all of our current gold ) Because of this it would likely not be cost effective to produce and even if it was it doesn't mean gold would be worthless. We have had synthetic diamonds for a long time and natural diamonds are still valuable.

 

Gold was synthesized by nuclear reaction with an neutron beam on an isotope of mercury in 1924 by a Japanese physicist or 1942 in the Western world. Unfortunately all produced were unstable isotopes, they broke down --> no more gold. The only method that produces a stable gold isotope ( not radioactive) was to use a rare isotope of mercury or platinum, but the cost to do so is multiples of the cost of natural gold.
So yes, it is possible and has been done in small quantities, but unless the special isotope of mercury is found in a large amount ( probably not) don't expect it.

 

Very cool information.

 

The Gem chimes in......

 

I guess it would be nice as there is just something about gold and silver coinage and if they didn't have such high intrinsic value we could issue all coinage in them.

 

If gold and silver ever become worthless we'll have a lot bigger problems on our hands than worrying about what to do with shiny metal.

 

Saw an original Twilight Zone the other night where some gold robbers hid out in suspended animation for 100 years so they could safely sell their loot.

Problem was, 100 years later, gold had become a commonly manufactured junk product. Rod Serling was good!

 

Or just like everything else people would lose interest. Clad coins have a nice look, people just like the gold and silver because it's worth more and seen as being more valuable

 

Clad coins look good ?? not when you put them next to a silver or gold coin.

 

Take 15 silver FDR dimes. 15 silver 15 clad. Show me you can pick the metal with dates hidden. When it fails it proves my point. The added value of the metal is what is driving the human desire

 

that' not true at all. or is it simply a big deal to you, personally?