As said in the title I wonder how gold was actually considered a currency since ancient times, I get it it’s shiney & humans love shiny stuff but still
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Planet Money Podcast had a great episode about this that I am gonna sum up. Ok, so you want a currency. First we gotta look at elements, you don’t want compounds or alloys cause you can make those, just pure elements. Ok, so you probably don’t want something that is a gas or liquid at room temp for obvious reason. So metals it is. Next you are gonna want something that doesnt oxidize (rust), you don’t want all your treasure to just rot away. Then you want something that you can melt and easily form into different shapes and sizes, things like platinum don’t work cause their melting point it far far too high for bronze era furnaces. That basically leaves just gold/silver, with copper and nickle as your less desirable metals cause they rust.
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