Why Is Gold Still So Valuable?

Why is gold still so valuable? All the gold ever mined would fit inside one cube about 22 metres on each side, yet it's worth around $30 trillion. We barely use it, and the world's central banks have been buying it at more than twice their old pace. Why? In this animated explainer we follow gold from a tiny Lydian lion coin to the vaults of Fort Knox: • why chemistry picked gold over every other element • how a stamped lion turned metal into money • how Spain drowned in treasure and still went broke • the gold standard, Roosevelt's gold order and Nixon's "temporary" pause • the crashes: 1980 to 1999, Brown's Bottom, and the handshake that moved the price • why central banks are buying again, and the honest answer to the title Chapters 0:00 The Strangest Metal 0:47 The Cube 2:05 Why Not Iron? 3:51 The Lion 5:06 Too Much Treasure 6:40 The Promise 9:01 The Crash 11:01 Who's Buying Now? 13:33 The Answer Emma is a hypothetical example. Gold prices move every day: values "at today's price" use about $4,150 an ounce (October 2026). Thumbnail chart: World Bank Commodity Price Data (The Pink Sheet), CC BY 4.0. Sources World Gold Council: How much gold has been mined? (Aug 2026): https://www.gold.org/goldhub/data/how... World Gold Council: Gold Demand Trends, full year 2025: https://www.gold.org/goldhub/research... World Gold Council: Gold Mid-Year Outlook 2026: https://www.gold.org/goldhub/research... World Gold Council: Central Bank Gold Reserves Survey 2026: https://www.gold.org/goldhub/research... USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026, Gold: https://pubs.usgs.gov/periodicals/mcs... NPR Planet Money: A chemist explains why gold beat out lithium, osmium, einsteinium: https://www.npr.org/sections/money/20... Royal Society of Chemistry, Periodic Table: Gold: https://periodic-table.rsc.org/elemen... LIGO Caltech, GW170817 neutron-star merger (Oct 2017): https://www.ligo.caltech.edu/page/pre... British Museum, Money Gallery guide (Lydian coins): https://www.britishmuseum.org/sites/d... EH.Net, review of Hamilton, American Treasure and the Price Revolution in Spain: https://eh.net/book_reviews/american-... Drelichman & Voth, Lending to the Borrower from Hell (Princeton UP): https://press.princeton.edu/node/8726 Royal Mint Museum, Isaac Newton at the Mint: https://www.royalmintmuseum.org.uk/jo... Econlib, Bordo, Gold Standard: https://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/G... Federal Reserve History: Gold Reserve Act of 1934: https://www.federalreservehistory.org... Executive Order 6102 (UCSB American Presidency Project): https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/docum... Federal Reserve History: Creation of the Bretton Woods System: https://www.federalreservehistory.org... US State Dept, Office of the Historian: Nixon and the end of Bretton Woods: https://history.state.gov/milestones/... US Treasury Fiscal Data, Status Report of U.S. Government Gold Reserve: https://fiscaldata.treasury.gov/datas... Bank of England Quarterly Bulletin 2003, The UK gold auctions 1999-2002: https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/-/med... HM Treasury, The sale of part of the UK gold reserves: https://www.gov.uk/government/publica... Berkshire Hathaway, 2011 shareholder letter: https://www.berkshirehathaway.com/let... Educational content, not financial or investment advice. For decisions about your own money, talk to a licensed professional. #Gold #Money #Economics