History of Gold
Gold was in use as a form of money, in one form or another, at least from 560 BC until the end of the Bretton Woods system in 1971. It was used as a store of value both by individuals and countries for much of that period.

Since the end of the Bretton Woods system in 1971, gold has largely lost its role as a form of currency. It is still considered by many as a store of value and a safe haven in times of crisis.Central banks are believed to retain large gold reserves.

Read more about Gold , Detailed History , Production etc >>

Why Gold is so precious

Apart from the use of gold as an asset and Jewelry , Gold is used in wide variety of applications (to mention a few.. see below).. which makes the metal precious and guarantees that the yellow metal wont lose value.

• Gold can be made into thread and used in embroidery.

• Gold is ductile and malleable, meaning it is able to be drawn into very thin wire and can be beaten into very thin sheets known as gold leaf.

• Gold produces a deep, intense red color when used as a coloring agent in glass.
Gold performs critical functions in computers, communications equipment, spacecraft, jet aircraft engines, and a host of other products.

• Gold's anti-oxidant properties has led to its widespread use as a thin layer coating electrical connectors, thereby ensuring good connections.

• Gold is highly conductive, and has been used for electrical wiring in high energy applications. For example, gold electrical wires were used during the Manhattan Project's atomic experiments.

• Gold is used in the connectors of electronics cables, such as audio, video and USB cables. The benefit of using gold over other connectors such as tin is highly debated. Gold connectors are often criticized by audio-visual experts as unnecessary for most consumers and seen as simply a marketing ploy.

• Gold alloys are used in restorative dentistry, especially in tooth restorations, such as crowns and permanent bridges. The gold alloys' slight malleability facilitates the creation of a superior molar mating surface with other teeth and produces results that are generally more satisfactory than those produced by the creation of porcelain crowns. The use of gold crowns in more prominent teeth such as incisors is favored in some cultures and discouraged in others.

• Colloidal gold (a gold nanoparticle) is an intensely colored solution that is currently studied in many labs for medical, biological and other applications.[citation needed] It is also the form used as gold paint on ceramics prior to firing.
Chlorauric acid is used in photography for toning the silver image.
Gold(III) chloride is used as a catalyst in organic chemistry. It is also the usual starting point for making other gold compounds.

• Gold is used as a conductive coating, thereby enabling biological material to be viewed under a scanning electron microscope.

• Many competitions, and honors, such as the Olympics and the Nobel Prize, award a gold medal to the winner.
As gold is a good reflector of both infrared and visible light, it is used for the protective coatings on many artificial satellites and on astronauts' helmets to prevent blindness from the Sun.

• Disodium aurothiomalate is a treatment for rheumatoid arthritis (administered intramuscularly). It inhibits lymphocyte proliferation, lysosomal enzyme release, the release of reactive oxygen species from macrophages, and IL-1 production.[citation needed] However, it can also cause photosensitive rashes, gastrointestinal disturbance, and kidney damage.[citation needed]

• The isotope gold-198, (half-life: 2.7 days) is used in some cancer treatments and for treating other diseases.[citation needed]

• Gold leaf, flake or dust is used on and in some gourmet foodstuffs, notably sweets and drinks as decorative ingredient. [3] Gold flake was used by the nobility in Medieval Europe as a decoration in foodstuffs and drinks, in the form of leafs, flakes or dust, either to demonstrate the host's wealth or in the honest belief that something that valuable and rare must be beneficial for one's health.

• Goldwasser (German: "Goldwater") is a traditional herbal liqueur produced in Gdansk, Poland and Schwabach, Germany and contains flakes of gold leaf. There are also some expensive (~1000$) cocktails which contain flakes of gold leaf. However, since gold is inert in all chemicals it encounters inside the body it adds no taste nor has it any other nutritional effect and leaves the body unaltered.

• In medieval times, gold was often seen as beneficial for the health, in the belief that something that rare and beautiful could not be anything but healthy. Even some modern esotericists and forms of Alternative medicine assign pure gold a healing power. However only salts and radioisotopes of gold can be of any therapeutic value, elemental gold is inert in all chemicals it encounters inside the body and leaves the body unaltered after 24 hours.[citation needed]

• White gold (an alloy of gold with platinum, palladium, nickel, and/or zinc) serves as a substitute for platinum.

• Green gold (a gold/silver alloy) is used in specialized jewelry while gold alloys with copper (reddish color) are more widely used for that purpose (rose gold).

• Gold is used as the reflective layer on some high-end CDs.

Gold as a financial asset
Gold and other precious metals are assets that are both tangible and liquid (i.e. easily traded), unlike real estate which is tangible but not liquid, or company shares and bonds which are liquid but not tangible.

Considering its high density and high value per unit mass, storing and transporting gold is very easy. Gold also does not corrode. Historically, it was also very easy to verify that an offered coin had the density of gold through the use of Archimedes' principle. Today, however, some metals are denser than gold yet cheaper. While some think gold deserves special treatment based on its cultural value and use as money, others consider gold a commodity, like copper or lead.

Buying physical gold
Some people, sometimes referred to as gold bugs, buy gold which they retain in their physical possession in the belief that should the monetary and financial system collapse, gold would still be considered valuable.

Other reasons for doing so include the ease of hiding the gold from others, such as family members or tax authorities.

Buying gold for the gold price
Some people buy gold not in their physical possession, but stored for them by a bank, through a gold exchange-traded fund, or in the form of a gold certificate; their motivations also apply to those who hold gold physically.

Some asset allocation strategies use exposure to gold as a form of diversification, though the inclusion of gold in model portfolios created by major financial advisory companies is no longer common. Gold may be included in portfolios as an insurance against unforeseen calamities which may affect the price of other investments negatively.

From the perspective of a currency trader, one can view gold as simply another form of currency and that buying gold is a process analogous to currency speculation. For example, when it is expected that the dollar will soon decline against other currencies, for an investor who normally covers his expenses in dollars, buying gold or other currency before the decline and selling it afterwards could realize a profit. Additionally speculators attempt to make a profit by predicting the gold price, and detecting market trends they believe will show them the future price direction.

For centuries gold has been used as a store of value. When viewed from the historical perspective of a multicentury time frame, no other investment has the wealth preserving power of gold. Other assets are dependent upon a certain government or political climate to retain value, appreciate, and not be excessively taxed, but gold is largely independent of political climate (with the exception of laws specifically confiscating gold as Franklin Roosevelt did). Gold investors believe that political and economic turmoil may have a negative influence on the value of their other investments, but the opposite effect on the value of gold.