Gold’s Lasting Luster

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Gold served as currency, ornament, reserve, and standard of value for more than five millennia.
The Lydians minted gold coins in the seventh century BCE.
Under the Bretton Woods system of 1944, the US dollar was tied to gold at $35 per ounce.
President Richard Nixon suspended official gold convertibility in 1971, ending the last vestige of the global gold standard and leaving currencies fiat.

Gold evolved into an investment refuge, rising 20-fold during the 1970s and surpassing $1,000 per ounce in the 2008 financial crisis.
During the pandemic turmoil of 2020, gold touched record highs near $2,000.
Central bank purchases exceeding 1,100 metric tons by China, India, Turkey, and Poland helped drive recent price increases.
The metal soared above $4,000 an ounce in recent months.
Prices leapt about 40 percent in 2025, the biggest yearly increase since 1979.
Gold holdings in US exchange-traded funds increased more than 40 percent, approaching $200 billion.

Enduring value rests on scarcity, durability, and trust.
Global mining adds barely 1.5 percent to the total above-ground stock each year.
Every ounce ever mined—about 210,000 metric tons—still exists in some form.
Gold’s price tends to rise when real interest rates turn negative; it is an insurance asset rather than a vehicle of prosperity.

Gold functions as a psychological anchor; common portfolio recommendations are a 5–10 percent allocation for balance and crisis stability.
Modern financial products—exchange-traded funds, sovereign gold bonds, and digital gold accounts—have democratized access.
Cultural holdings are large: households in India are estimated to hold more than 25,000 metric tons.
In China and India, gold purchases are driven by tradition (festivals, weddings) and economic prudence.

Bitcoin’s fixed supply of 21 million coins prompts comparisons to gold (“digital gold”), but differences remain:
- Bitcoin is volatile, intangible, and dependent on digital infrastructure.
- Gold is physical, immune to code failures or regulatory bans.
Financial innovation (tokenized gold, AI-driven trading) may change ownership and exchange mechanisms but not gold’s underlying social meaning.

As Western sanctions and dollar-system risks have risen, gold has become a geopolitical buffer.
The People’s Bank of China has increased holdings, now surpassing 2,300 metric tons.
The Reserve Bank of India has expanded reserves to nearly 800 metric tons.
Gold’s neutrality—belonging to no nation and carrying no counterparty risk—makes it a sovereign shield in contested multipolarity.

Gold’s worth is rooted in collective belief: “the trust we place in its uselessness.”
Its appeal reconciles material extraction with perceived worth; it endures because people seek symbols of stability.
Price volatility will continue, but the author argues the metal’s meaning as a store of faith and memory will persist.

Pratik Ghansham Salvi; Published on December 17, 2025, F&D Magazine.