[monort]

You said that jewelry and industrial use outweighs investment use, but gold reserves (investment) far outstrip yearly transaction amount, that is the difference with other commodities, where it is rare to have more than a year supply. It is a feature of gold and that is why people call it a "store of value".

Transactions are necessary but insufficient for something to become a store of value. For example, steel is sold in great amount, but it is not a store of value.

[wpietri]

I think you've reversed cause and effect here. Gold reserves prove that people use it as a store of value, but they're not a necessary condition for something being a store of value.

For example, let's suppose that I made a deal with Porche to buy the first car off their assembly line each year. I take it and store it away as an investment. Is there an existing reserve of 2018 Porches? No, I have the first one. Does anybody else do this? Doesn't matter. It's still a good store of value as long as people keep wanting 2018 Porches.

People could use steel as a store of value; it's just an inconvenient commodity to deal with because the value per gram is so low. You need to store a lot of it. But rarer metals will do fine.