Above all else, gold is simply a commodity with widespread use. Gold is a metal, with multiple standalone uses as well as gold being used in the making of something else. Gold is money, with all sorts of human emotion and human interaction tied to it throughout the millennia. Originally, gold is mined into existence, however, as an important, needed commodity in many different industries, gold also comes to market by other means beyond mining, such as gold recycling. As a commodity, gold is used in various applications from the electronics and technological sectors to the medical sector. From its use in microchips to its use in the dental field, gold has properties that translate into diverse real world applications and uses.
In addition to gold being used as one commodity among many commodities in the manufacturing of different goods, gold can be used in and of itself as the manufactured good itself. For example, gold is commonly used as jewelry in the form of rings, necklaces, and more. Gold is also used as decoration and adornment. Said differently, gold is beautiful, and because of its inherent beauty, gold can be a means to an end just as much as gold can be an end itself.
Gold is much more than a simple commodity, however, because gold is money. There are not many things in this world that have and can stand the test of time when it comes to being money, but gold is one of them. Gold is durable, fungible, divisible, universal, and overall, gold is one of the ultimate mediums of exchange. Governments and central banks around the world use gold as money, as do individuals, families and communities, and because of this well established monetary history, gold is possibly the ultimate money.
Furthermore, gold is something that will always have value. That is to say, gold is lasting, and gold is not something that can ever become worthless because of the intrinsic value in gold itself. Moreover, a cardboard box full of baseball cards will not last long at the bottom of the ocean, but gold has been found while metal-detecting on a beach, and gold has even pulled from shipwrecks on the ocean floor itself, but maybe more importantly, the gold that is found wherever and used for whatever can be repurposed and used for whatever again. Few things besides gold have this kind of lasting, intrinsic value.
For all of the things that gold is, and for all of the ways that people use gold, perhaps more than any other element in the world, gold is the ultimate human tool. Gold is a commodity, with real-world use, but gold is also money, with real-world use.
