Why do we love gold?

Since time immemorial, gold has fascinated
Indians. Indians love gold for its investment value (considering the inherent store
value and for being a great hedge against inflation/currency depreciation), its
cultural significance, and its symbolic value in terms of its demonstrative
effect in the society.

But the question is, why only gold and why not any
other metal? An interesting article, published on the BBC Magazine website, attempts
to answer this important question.

.... [T]hat
leaves just two elements - silver and gold.

Both are scarce but not impossibly
rare. Both also have a relatively low melting point, and are therefore easy to
turn into coins, ingots or jewellery.

Silver tarnishes - it reacts with
minute amounts of sulphur in the air. That's why we place particular value on gold.

It turns out then, that the reason
gold is precious is precisely that it is so chemically uninteresting.

Gold's relative inertness means you
can create an elaborate golden jaguar and be confident that 1,000 years later
it can be found in a museum display case in central London, still in pristine
condition.

So what does this process of
elemental elimination tell us about what makes a good currency?

Read the complete piece here.