How did gold become a universally precious metal throughout the world?
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Gold is sometimes called the “noblest metal,” because it doesn’t readily oxidize. Most other metals oxidize – iron rusts, copper turns green, silver tarnishes, etc. But gold just kind of… stays gold. It’s pretty scarce all around the world, you find it in a pure state (unlike most other metals which are mined as oxides, you mine gold as tiny flecks of gold in larger rocks,) and it’s shiny. Once you have it, it’s reasonably easy to work with because it’s also the most malleable metal – you can pull gold into wires that are as wide as a single atom.
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