Gold, before being the material par excellence of jewelry, was born in nature. It is a mineral and belongs to the family of precious metals like its cousins silver, platinum and palladium. It is composed of a single chemical element that we note "Au" from the Latin "aurum" and atomic number 79.
Man has used gold since the end of prehistoric times. It is the second metal known to man after copper. Gold was mainly used for the adornment of the powerful and for religious ceremonies. The assimilation of gold to the divinized solar disk was one of the most powerful levers. We find gold amulets in Egyptian tombs at each of the great periods of ancient Egypt. The most powerful, such as Tutankhamun and Ramses, were buried with gold death masks and other ornaments.
It is during the Antiquity, in the second half of the seventh century B.C. that appeared the first currency of the history. This use spread to Persia, central Greece, and then throughout the ancient world during the Hellenistic period alongside silver, bronze and copper coins of lesser value. Gold was continuously used as a currency in the West until 1973, when it was stripped of its last monetary role as an international reserve currency.
The search for gold was one of the reasons for the conquest of the American continent. Thus, Hernán Cortés undertook the conquest of the Aztec Empire, in particular to seize the gold that they possessed. Thus, the gold that flowed from the mines of the New World caused the wealth of Spain and Portugal in the early modern period, before benefiting other European states that were better able to capture it, such as France and Britain.
In the mid-19th century, a gold rush began in California and contributed in part to the conquest of the American West and the demographic and economic growth of many Californian cities.
Gold was used as the exclusive monetary standard (the gold standard), first in the United Kingdom and then throughout the world after gold-silver bimetallism was abandoned in the 1870s. The 1914 war put an end to this system, which could never be re-established. In 1971, the United States suspended the convertibility of the dollar into gold and in 1976, gold no longer had an official monetary role.
However, gold remained in the reserves of the major central banks as a precautionary measure. The world's largest reserve of monetary gold is in the United States, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. However, gold still plays a significant economic role. It is listed on the main Western stock exchanges, New York, London and Tokyo. The transactions that take place on this value, especially in times of crisis, are considered an important economic barometer.
Today, gold also retains its artistic functions in medals, jewelry and gilding. It represents a safe haven in the face of the irregularities of the stock market. The gold repurchase is also practiced in order to bring you liquidity.
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