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Gold And Silver... It’s True Worth Is Alluding Me.

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posted on Dec, 23 2017 @ 09:31 AM
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a reply to: ScepticScot
Maybe you should go ask the most powerful rulers on Earth for a satisfactory answer, after all they own the bulk of it. Must be some kind of reason no?



posted on Dec, 23 2017 @ 09:38 AM
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originally posted by: waynos
The values of metals like silver and gold, and rocks like emeralds and diamonds etc, is related to how easily they can be obtained. The rarer an item, particularly one that looks pretty, occurs in nature, the more highly it is valued.


That is not always the case, high quality rubies, emeralds and sapphires are rarer than diamonds but diamonds are more valued than all of those.



posted on Dec, 23 2017 @ 09:44 AM
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If you've really screwed up those metals can get you out of the doghouse.





posted on Dec, 23 2017 @ 09:54 AM
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originally posted by: worldstarcountry
a reply to: ScepticScot
Maybe you should go ask the most powerful rulers on Earth for a satisfactory answer, after all they own the bulk of it. Must be some kind of reason no?


Wasn't my OP or question.

You to however make a good point that Gold is stockpiled rather than used, which gives further evidence that it's value is not connected to its uses.



posted on Dec, 26 2017 @ 04:06 AM
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originally posted by: AugustusMasonicus

originally posted by: waynos
The values of metals like silver and gold, and rocks like emeralds and diamonds etc, is related to how easily they can be obtained. The rarer an item, particularly one that looks pretty, occurs in nature, the more highly it is valued.


That is not always the case, high quality rubies, emeralds and sapphires are rarer than diamonds but diamonds are more valued than all of those.


Yeah, fair point. As scojaks informative posts have shown, there are many other compelling reasons too.



posted on Dec, 26 2017 @ 04:31 AM
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a reply to: Hazardous1408

I haven't read all the other replies (yet), but I wanted to just throw this out for your consideration...

You probably should have asked a slightly different question (based on the theme of the answer you appear to be looking for). And that question would be...simply...

"How is 'value' established?

And, in order to understand the answer you have to look back at how barter societies worked. In those days (5) chickens might be worth say (1) goat in trade. Well, that all works out okay if you have goats and/or chickens, but what happens when you don't have any goats and you really, really, need some chicken for dinner? What happens when you are not a farmer, but an accountant (or some other non-farming profession)? Then there needs to be an intermediary.

Gold was chosen as a 'currency' for trade way back in the Egyptian times. It's 'value' was a function of the scarcity of the metal. (oh, and let's face it...it was pretty for jewelry and the like). So, in simplistic terms, one day some farmer wanted to give his wife something nice as a gift (gold in this example). So he went to a miner and offered him a goat for a gold piece. After this type of trading happened a few (million) times, there was a basic 'value' established for currencies like gold. Soon, the bookmaker could pay a merchant in gold as the intermediate currency. To get his gold he provided a service to others and therefore 'earned' the value. The merchant then used the gold to buy something altogether different...all based on the value.

All of that said, the definition of "value" is actually a very complex economic subject, and there are some PhD thesis' out there on this subject.

When you enter "Fiat Currency" into the equation it becomes infinitely more complex. Then you add concepts like "debt" and "perceived value" and it becomes even more complicated still.

Hope this helps.



edit on 12/26/2017 by Flyingclaydisk because: (no reason given)




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