Gold is also more valuable than silver because it is available in much smaller quantities than silver. It is estimated that all the gold that has been mined throughout history and that has not yet been mined can fit in just over three Olympic-sized swimming pools with a total of 244,000 metric tons. Compare that to silver, which has approximately 1.74 million metric tons that have been mined to date, not including what has not yet been mined. Although silver can be polished and textured in multiple ways to capture light and attention, there is no metal left like gold.
Unlike other elements, gold naturally has a subtle range of unique and beautiful colors. The atoms in gold are actually heavier than in silver and other metals. This attribute causes electrons to move faster, which in turn allows some of the light to be absorbed by gold, a process that Einstein's theory of relativity helped to discern. Gold is much more valuable than any other metal, which means it will always have a use for it.
Metal is so popular because it doesn't rust or tarnish and its color never fades. That's why gold is likely to remain valuable, no matter what happens in the market. Gold is heavy and dense—in fact, about twice as dense as silver. This means that, by volume, a little bit of gold goes a long way.
It's more comfortable to carry around one hundred dollars worth of gold in your pocket than one hundred dollars in silver. For this reason, gold and silver materials maintain high value and purchasing power, not only over time, but also worldwide. Therefore, part of the reason gold has always had value lies in the psychology and nature of human experience. While many investors are looking for gold and silver in physical form, such as ingots or coins, investing in mining stocks is usually a better option.
Gold and silver are precious metals that are elemental metals that occur naturally and have a high economic value. Gold also shows its color very well when silver tarnishes and changes color easily, and the tarnished appearance is often not desirable. Gold can stimulate a subjective personal experience, but it can also be objectified if adopted as an exchange system. Hmm, I just looked back at my white gold versus platinum post and, in all four reasons platinum costs more, I address this question.
In other cases, these precious metals are often used in technology, industry and infrastructure, making gold and silver extremely valuable to many companies. Gold can be something quantitative and tangible, like money, and at the same time it can embody something ephemeral, such as a feeling, even a series of feelings. If the modern paper money economy collapsed, gold may not have immediate use, as it panics and people fight for their basic needs, but eventually it will. Most would agree that gold has always had value, for all these reasons, as a component of decorative jewelry, a currency at one time and as an investment.
If you invest in a company that mines gold and sells it on the market, it's called “paper” because, technically, you never own any physical piece of the metal. No matter how you look at it, an investment in gold or silver is almost always smart, whether you decide to sell now or later. The goldsmith can turn it into a wedding ring that fits comfortably on the finger, and the jeweler can design any number of rings of any shape with gold.
