Reply #33: Well, even back then Ancient Man (edit) [View All]

[genie_weenie]

and other believed gold to have mystical properties. Gold didn't corrode, it easily combine with other elements, as I stated it can be bent or hammered into many shapes. Gold was considered the perfect noble metal (similar to how the circle was the perfect geometrical figure) and many people believed gold to have curative effects, either through imbibing it or having it on their bodies. This is why brass was made, to ancients it seemed gold like and therefore would be classified by their thought processes as a type of gold.

Gold has been used crowns for teeth (I'm not sure when) since it doesn't corrode.
Gold was used as thread for clothing.

And back in the 600s BCE, gold was used as a stand in for cattle, because people everywhere agreed that a ounce of gold was worth x (Cattle, linen, cotton whatever). And it was inconvenient to have to carry around 10 tons of wheat to buy the shoes, mattocks and other items you wanted. Of course, in certain areas an amount of gold might get you more of an item, less of an item or none of item.

Now, it's true to Hunter gather societies, iron or leather may be more valuable than gold, but I just have to disagree with you that it was capriciousness that human society adopted gold.

Edit to remove alchemists and make it more than just them.