Gold is a special metal. Aside from the fact it is scarce, gold was one of the very first metals that people learned to manipulate. It does not tarnish, and seldom needs a difficult smelting process in order to extract and refine. Gold melts at a relatively low temperature, so much that a small oven will do the job. Even at room temperature, it is soft and can be pounded into any shape.
The properties of gold made it the ideal material for making the first coins. Gold was traded by weight even before then, and rulers eventually began to standardize and print their own images on lumps of gold. This was achieved using a bronze print and a hammer, churning out coins by the thousands through hand labor. The first formal coins were introduced around 600 BC in the far east.
Civilizations continued to use gold coinage as a means to store wealth. As time passed, gold was replaced by silver and even copper as the common circulating medium, but governments drafted gold coins and stored them in vaults as an early form of sovereign wealth. Transactions between nations and even banks were conducted via a transfer of gold.
Even in modern times, countries can demand to be paid in gold, and the coin is still one way to organize gold as a unit. In this form, the coin is just a lump representing a precise weight, and it is the gold itself that is valuable. While this might seem like an inglorious fate for precious metal, spending decades in vaults, it is still possible for modern coins to have value beyond its troy ounce.
Modern gold coins are printed with intricate patterns, taking full advantage of the metal's easy malleability and permanent luster. Fine designs can be printed with much less pressure, and beautiful micro-impressions are possible, even creating holographic illusions.
When a person buys a modern gold coin, such as a Krugerrand, Maple leaf, US Eagle, or Sovereign, which are some of the most popular and best know gold coins and traded word wide. They are purchasing a work of art, that has value beyond the actual gold. Such rarities are collectors items, and in the future can be sold for an amount far in excess of its gold content, assuming the owner wishes to sell such a treasure at all. Gold will last the test of time. Buy gold for yourself and your family. Such an investment can be passed down through the generation, as a means of wealth storage.
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