Chart of the Day: Why Gold is Money

Today’s Chart of the Day is a classic from Visual Capitalist outlining why “Gold is Money” and the other 117 elements are not.

Simply put, many elements are in gas and liquid form. Some are poisonous, decay, or are radioactive. Some would burst into flames in our atmosphere or are unstable at room temperature.

That leaves 30 that are solid, such as nickel or copper, but many are found on Earth in abundance. Some are so rare they can only be created in a laboratory, and one, Osmium, only exists in the Earth's crust from meteorites. That leaves five: platinum, palladium, rhodium, silver, and gold. Silver tarnishes, rhodium, and palladium are new, and platinum has an unreasonably high melting point.

Which leaves us with gold. Gold melts at a reasonable temperature, is malleable to form into coins and bars, does not dissipate or burst into flames, isn't poisonous, has been easily mined through history, has a distinct color which differentiates it from other elements, and finally, is rare enough so is not overproduced.