At Sat, 06 Mar 1999 17:50:08 -0800, you wrote:
>
>joe dees wrote:
>>
>> Gold itself is only as good as the common agreement to exchange goods and services for it. It is neither nutritional to eat, nor can it warmly and efficiently cover one's body.
>
>I agree with you. At the same time, I think there is a significant
>difference between gold coins and other kinds of money. Gold is rare
>enough that you can't just fire up the presses and crank out as many
>Kugerans (sp?) as you think you need. Whereas with paper and electronic
>money, the sky's the limit.
>
>-KMO
>
Iron makes much better weapons, yet is worth much less.
Nose oil is an excellent lubricant, and its world production could be measured in Bbls, yet it does not command a million % markup over raw petroleum. Many things enter into value; rarity (platinum is much rarer, but runs about the same per ounce - thus rarity must be measured vs. demand), history, utility, necessity (where substitutes just won't do), mythology, psychology (the rich golden sun color - see beer), advertizing, etc.
Joe E. Dees
Poet, Pagan, Philosopher