why gold is regarded as precious metal?
484620
Precious metals are metals that react little with other elements. More specifically: they don't rust. They are also rare.\nThese two properties makes it possible to use precious metals as a store of wealth. On top of that gold has a very characteristic colour, while the other precious metals are whitish/greyish.
566660
Bullion quite simply is a means of measuring the quantity of a precious metal.  Bullion can be minted as ingots (bars) or coins, such as the famous S. African Krugerrand.\n\nMore can be found at wikipedia at he folllowing link:\n\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullion\n\nHope this helps!\n--J.
896731
Gold and diamonds are only worth something because our society says they are.   The piece of paper is symbolic of what it represents -the economy of the country..
558985
White Gold is a special alloy made by treating gold with White Metals such often as Silver, Palladium, Nickel, Tin, Antimony, Cadmium, Bismuth, and Zinc.\n\nMaking Gold white is similar to mixing colours in paints. Adding a red metal (Copper) will tend to make Gold red and adding a white metal tends to make Gold paler and eventually white. Thus, all other alloying metals to Gold, apart from Copper, will tend to whiten the colour and so it is possible to make carat Gold that are a reasonable white colour. \n\nWhilst additions of any white metal to Gold will tend to bleach its colour, in practice, Nickel and Palladium (sometimes Platinum) are strong 'bleachers ' of Gold, Silver and Zinc are moderate bleachers and all others are moderate to weak in effect.\n\nThis has given rise, historically, to two basic classes of white Gold - the Nickel whites and the Palladium whites. The Nickel-whites tend to have a colder white colour, whereas the Palladium whites have a warmer colour. Good nickel whites tend to be hard and difficult to process. Good Palladium whites tend to be soft, easy to process but are much more expensive, because of the price of Palladium.\n\nColour of White Gold is light grey unassisted, so jewellery made of white Gold typically is coated in highly reflective Rhodium, or another prised precious metal, Platinum, to give it its bright white colour.
435707
gold as its conductivity is high
964757
gold because it's most shiny.\n\n*How many questions do you ask in a day?*
682250
Bugger all; a few micrograms.   Gold can be hammered or plated thinner than just about any other material.   There's a pagoda in Myanmar, one of the poorest countries in the world, with a roof covered in gold leaf.   The cost of the gold in medicines, electronic components, space helmet visors and all its other useful applications is negligible compared with the cost of manufacture.
1154066
It is not due to the chemistry of copper or gold.\n\nIt is due to the electronic band structure. The two metals unusually have a band structure that causes them to absorb light at certain frequencies rather than reflecting it.
160084
It used to. But the United states is on a non-fiat monetary system. The gold reserve is meaningless and is not backing the money. The government is telling you that it is worth something and can be used for payments and debts.
700018
Gold is a metal thrown to earth by Zeus because he did not want his wife Hera to be greedy. Did not help him or her.
288858
Gold started out as valuable in ancient days because it made durable, pretty looking jewelry.  Because it was rare, kings and rich people used gold jewelry, etc as a status symbol.  People then found it made a good money for expensive purchases. You can easily carry gold coins around, and the cost is easily calculated by weight.  Once it became money, even more people wanted it, pushing its value up even more.  \n\nNow that we are off the gold standard, gold still holds its allure as a rare substance, due to its history.  Also, gold has a clear value per ounce and is easily exchangeable.  When you buy many other rare things like diamonds, its hard to know exactly what they're worth.  You have to be an expert in the field to evaluate them.\n\nHowever, over the long run, gold is a very volatile investment, and there's no guarantee it will go up in the future.  It is now selling for less than it was in 1980.
897290
Because it is relatively rare and costly to extract.\nIt is also an attractive color, so people would crave it as it appears unalterable (gold resist most acids and oxidation).
188961
Actually, contrary to what some people obviously believe, gold is really soft. If you can make a mark on it when you bite down, it is real.
540715
Coins. Many years ago we were using coins made of gold and silver because the coin itself had value. Paper=not valuable, so paper money was not first.
561826
the purpose of the gold standard (in any market really) is to provide a real physical backbone to the economic flow (by setting aside gold and saying that all currency in circulation has an exact gold equivalent. This is the gold STANDARD. However, its use in foreign markets would put a gold value on more than one type of currency . . . that would effectively balance out the currencies (not equivalnet exchange 1dollar for one peso but you knwo what I mean) and aid in controlling the value of money (preventing money from having NO value as it currently does, which is why the exchange rates change so frequently).
250577
If you are referring to the Activity Series of metals in aqueous solutions then it is an arrangement of metals in order of decreasing ease of oxidation.  Lithium is easily oxidized where as gold is not.
62144
IMO Gold is an "insurance policy" not an investment.  \n\nIn general, gold rises under a few conditions: \nEconomic instability\nLowering value of the dollar\nIncreased inflation\n\nYou can certainly speculate by buying gold, but you're betting that one of the above conditions takes place or increases in magnitude.  \n\nOver time, gold has shown itself to be a poor investment in comparison to stocks, bonds etc. But an excellent hedge against inflation and monetary collapse.\n\nNowadays many people think that a repeat of 1929 - 1939 is impossible. It is not.  It is prudent for anyone to have a portion of their portfolio in gold as insurance against a similar future collapse because gold has historically been a store of value from ancient times to today.