Why is gold so valuable?

Put simply, because its a rare mineral. Anything on this earth that is either in short supply or hard to extract from the ground is gonna cost you more than say a rock from your garden. Crude oil is a good example(or black gold). As the human race uses more and more of the little oil we have left, then the price of oil/gasoline will continue to rise.

It's pretty, and relatively rare.
It's soft and very easily worked into elaborate jewelry.
It's highly conductive and good for electronics.

These are all good answers. However, none of them really answer the question. Gold can not be eaten. Gold can not shelter you. Gold can not cure diseace. Gold can not do much of anything except be pretty. I need to know why humans are willing to kill and die for a piece of shiny metal that from my point of view has no real value in comparison to the importance that man has bestowed upon it.

Yeah, kinda lame. People have sought this stuff for ages (and diamonds). It is rare, but so what?

Research the word Anunnaki and you will find the Real reason Gold is so valuable.

Probably because it's rare, it's pretty to look at and above all else it stays pretty - it doesn't tarnish like other metals do. (which scientifically is because it doesn't react with oxygen like many other metals do - making it a Noble metal)

Also consider that before people discovered how to smelt gold ore it would have been even more of a rarity existing only in the remains of meteorites which contained gold ore and smelted in the heat of impact.

Mostly because of its rarity and beauty. In the entire history of humans, only enough gold to fill two olympic-sized swimming pools has been mined. Because it is rare, people use it as a currency and buy it speculatively, which tends to drive the price up.

Gold also has some utility, but I think most of the price comes from the above.

Because people revert back to their anamal nature when they see it, like other animals like shiny things.


And because shiney things... usually require effort and work to make shiny. Most shiny things are, in the rough, not all that shiny. The efforts required to makes them shiny is what seperates us from the animals.

Man has been assiging value to his environment forever.

Just like in the movie Castaway...

"I... have made fire!"

Scarcity
Its attractive, made into jewelery (high demand)

Because people think it is valuable........

great question!!!!!!!!!! i have asked the same question for the last few years! exactly! you cannot eat it, it does not shelter you....etc. where does the value come from? is vanity it? surely not. i do not believe so. throughout history, cultures, indigenous [peoples, the environment have all been destroyed, raped, devastated just for gold. millions have died. what is the real value? i read somewhere that it has a property important to a particular people, or perhaps humans. immortality? since the beginning of man have we sort it, and destroyed everything and everyone to get it! since before the egyptians to today! one thing for sure is that we have been definitely kept in the cold about the true value of gold. :)

becuase we made it that way, you can put whatever price on whatever you want, as long as people are willing to buy it

It is not thavaluable anymore. Not as valuable as Platinum or Tanzanite

Before we go any further, lemme clarify the question:

Food is valuable because we eat it. Hell, I'd call steel 'valuable' because we make cars out of it. But what do we do with gold, other than either wear it (in tiny amounts 'cos it's expensive - not keeping us warm or anything) or chuck it in a vault and watch it do nothing?

We can all survive quite happily without gold, so why do we want it enough to make it valuable?

Humans covet it.

It's not all that valuable - just expensive. I don't think many people have died from a lack of gold

basically, we don't have very much of it, but everyone wants some.

Its a cool color :)

No one understands what this question is REALLY asking. We all know that it has been equivalent of money for a long time, and the it's pretty, and hard to find, and mine. However, let's imagine we are on an island (the Earth is an island in the Milky Way, by the way).
Why is gold valuable to the inhabitants of the island? It isn't. You know what's valuable? Like the guy on Answer #4 said, "FIRE". Fire makers would be given the biggest "most expensive" and tasties portion of the wild hog that was kileld, because only the fire maker can cook the meat. Same with the hunter of the wild hog (given that only one of say 20 could hunt down a wild hog).
It's all about the barter. This is what everyone here is missing! Gold has NO TRUE BARTER value. It DID have value when people liked to wear it because it made them more important than other serfs and common men. However, that was long ago, and only the "idea" of gold's value has kept it in line.
Now, I agree, you should pay alot for a rare metal that helps with electricity. That electrical component should be expensive. However, I'm not going to be able to take a piece of gold to some yahoo in the jungle in exchange for them sharing their food with me...you know? How is it valuable there?
What IS TRULY VALUABLE is whatever all inhabitants of the place you are in AGREE to be valuable. Some communites value skills...which make the most sense. However, skills can not be traded, so money needs to be created in order to have a PROMISE TO DO SOMETHING OF VALUE IN EXCHANGE FOR THE VALUE OF THE MONEY.
Money's defintion should be, "The exchange of value added activities that both parties agree is equal".

well its so valuable because it is so commonly known and has a nice gold colour for example vanadium is a very rare metal that not many people hear about.
And while gold is commonly found in numerous places vanadium must be extracted from ores.

Enough people invest in it and value it highly. It is a fairly stable commodity that people like to invest in when the market takes a dive.

Mostly in the mind. At one time our {other countries also} currency was based on it - no more. At one time a lot was used in electronics - not so much. Class rings are the number one use for gold today. A certian rommance attached to it because it is fairly rare and it's role in our history. New uses are being looked at including being used to help purifiy water - not there yet.

Many want it.

Humans horde it because they like bright shiny objects otherwise though useful it wouldn't be valuable. The ancients on all continents used it like we use plastic today. An exaggeration but not far from the truth.

Even if that gold does not provide any "must have" service to mankind and all of us can live without it (unlike water, food, shelter etc), but still the gold price is high because it is very very rare and even a very low priority need of mankind to look pretty is enough to sore it's price very high. If all of us in this world were below poverty line with no interest in gold at all then gold would have been as cheap as anything else,buteven if only 0.1% of total word population want to have a little of it then that is enough to make it very expensive.

I've wondered exactly that as well. It's had absolutely no useful function until very recently with electronics and yet wars have been waged over it for pretty much all of human existence.

Here's my guess:
1. It's a very soft metal. When it's found in streams and near the surface - it's obvious and relatively easily separated from the junk around it by sifting or heating. After that all kinds of nice stuff can be made from it.

2. It doesn't corrode. It stays shiny more or less no matter what you do to it.

3. It has a color unlike anything else in nature - but close (sort of) to the sun. At least it has come to symbolize the sun in every culture it's been a part of (as far as I know). And the sun has been or associated with god(s) in most cultures. Hence gold has also been.

4. It's rare.

Put those together and it becomes valuable even in a barter economy. Once people started trading in symbolic economies (not literally trading one useful thing for another but instead relying on some intermediary thing like a nice seashell or shiny rock) gold would quickly have emerged as a fine candidate since it probably had value before.

And the rest is history.

few say gold is rare that is why it is rare it is wrong there are many elements in atomic table that are more rare than gold, few say it is stable and non reactive that is why few say it got a high decorative value, you could found many artificial substance more glittery and stable than gold. Gold's value is all assumed by human beings markets governments having gold in possession doesn't gives you any health benefits, utility of gold is mere you see nothing more than water and food is having more utility in this world, but they are cheap. one another reason that gold is expensive is extraction cost of gold is very high up to 70% of gold's market value, third reason is that culturally and historically gold was the metal which was assumed worth the wealth. If human society all at a time start to bealive that gold doesnt carry any value the day gold will lose its value and would be same as soil or stone.

It can be beaten to 5 millionths of an inch or even thinner...it is inert in the human body.it makes a exellent electrical conductor.it does not rot ...not many acids erode it ...it malleable to work with...has a very low melting point....some say it makes nice shinny jelwery....

Gold is an element. Meaning it consist of only one type of atom.

Mostly because it is the hradest metal.there are other reasons,but that one is on top.

Gold is an element. (Consists of only one type of atoms at its molecular level) Which means it cannot be manufactured not can it be decayed.
Now, for the esoteric answer. People want to acquire, value or wear gold because Human body elemental composition consist of some 12 element and gold is not one of them. There exists a certain law of attraction I guess, when you don't have it in you, absorb it by wearing it.

Being shiny, exotic, durable, stable, rare and difficult to obtain are precisely the reasons why gold was chosen to represent wealth, wealth being a measure of social value. If you were going to use something to represent your accumulated social value (that being what you possess, create, perform, etc.), you would not choose something that was easy to find, make, dispose, destroy, etc., nor easily mutable into something with those traits. It also has to be relatively easy to verify and harder to counterfeit. It's the practical "permanence" that makes it so valuable. But silver, copper and bronze also shared to a lesser extent similar qualities that establishes their value, as have various gems.

Of course, that is in the context of the ancient world. In the modern world, there are other things that exhibit those desirable qualities (e.g., corporations (in form of bonds/stock), governments (bonds/treasuries), and it wasn't that long ago that an Intel CPU was worth more than its weight in gold), but they come and go, which is why gold's value fluctuates so dramatically as we shift our focus to other valuable things that we can possess. But if it's not gold, how else can you store the wealth you have accumulated, if you are uncertain of what that something else is? The value of gold generally represents the index of uncertainty of everything else that we can store our wealth in. As we become more (temporarily) certain of other things, gold loses its value. People lose a lot of wealth storing it with gold.

Yes, food is more valuable to a starving man; shelter is more valuable to the homeless; friends are valuable to the lonely; recognition is more valuable to the insecure; accomplishments are more valuable to those in need of nothing else; and you can choose to invest and measure your wealth in these terms. But you can't exchange any of these with someone who does not share your sense of value (it may not even be exchangeable), and since we are all unique, it's very difficult to agree on what is valuable.

So, if you need a way to conveniently store away your wealth by exchanging it with something that you believe cannot become worthless, can you think of something else that can withstand the uncertainties of your entire lifetime and perhaps even your descendants? Short of a giant meteor of gold (softly) landing on earth to fulfill everyone's desire to possess it, it will likely be the shelter of last resort for many people for their wealth.

And if that's too philosophical, transactions and capital gains from buying/selling gold are not taxed and very difficult to track. :) People have been trying to find ways to hide their wealth from others since the dawn of time, and people have been trying to take it by force or decree just as long.

Andygib's answer is close to being right, firstly gold is not a mineral it's a metal. Secondly an important detail was omitted....the fact that something is rare and difficult to extract from the ground are good points, but what he failed to mention is that there has to be something useful or desirable about it. Gold is desirable for it's amazing properties and beauty. Oil is useful in manufacturing gasoline. No disrespect to the answer, just adding another point of view.

ooo ooo ahh ahhh ahhh me likes shinny art

Because its not often found and is one of the most nonreactive metals which means it will stay pure for a very long time

Because only so much of it is allowed onto the market at a particular time.

This keeps the price high.

its rare

1.it is a scarce resource
2.it is used in Foreign exchange reseve which is the base for currency
3.It is a metal which can be used in making jewellery and its colour doesnt fade.

Because it's a safe haven!

Because it is rare,which makes it expensive as people want something rare so they can show off.

Because there is less of it than tin

Because we humans are a bunch of idiots and don't know the real value of things. If we valued love and others' happiness as much as we value greed and power then this world would look very different. It's all connected, all the way down to our (un)conscious moral values. Right now we're still pretty much stuck at the Gollum stage.