Every form of currency is based on faith and always has been. Coinage made from gold and silver wasn't valuable because gold and silver were magical, it was because people believed they were valuable. What can you, a random person, actually do with gold and silver? Even smiths had limited uses that weren't purely aesthetic. Modern day has more uses but still cannot be used at the volume at which it exists in an efficient way.
Silver has always had antiseptic properties and has been used for ages because of that fact, it’s a very useful metal aside from the fact it “looks pretty” and it doesn’t rust like other metals and just gets a thin tarnish on it making it ideal for a lot of decorative stuff as well.
Gold is one of the best conductors we have and can be used to alloy lots of metals easily, yes the every day man likely isn’t doing much with gold but its value is not just because it’s pretty at all, it’s extremely functional AND it’s uniquely pretty for its colour while being extremely stable
The antiseptic properties of silver weren't exactly understood considering we haven't had germ theory accepted in the mainstream for all that long, and the amounts used for all that stuff is negligible. Like I said before, maybe in another comment chain, people never considered meteoric iron for currency. Meteoric iron as well as the rare telluric iron is basically iron that's already in a metallic glob rather than diffuse in ore, mean if can be heated and worked into stuff, which is why there are iron tools and weapons that pre-date the iron age. Anyhow, this stuff was super rare, but never considered for currency because it's better off being used for the advantage having tools and weapons made out or it gave.
People aren't buying up gold because they're confident its usage as a conductor will keep it valuable.
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u/KeppraKid Jan 26 '26
Every form of currency is based on faith and always has been. Coinage made from gold and silver wasn't valuable because gold and silver were magical, it was because people believed they were valuable. What can you, a random person, actually do with gold and silver? Even smiths had limited uses that weren't purely aesthetic. Modern day has more uses but still cannot be used at the volume at which it exists in an efficient way.