Eli5: Why is gold considered to be inherently valuable?

Question

I hear some economics arguing that currency should be pegged to gold as a way of ensuring that its value isn’t arbitrary / volatile but I don’t understand how this would solve the problem. I understand that gold is a scarce resource that is difficult to mine but is it this alone that gives it intrinsic value ?

In: 115

Answer 1

It’s pretty, easy and cheap to store.

It doesn’t have “inherent” value but due to its nature as something that’s easily stored and minable it’s price is roughly stable making it the best physical thing to tie a currency to.