[DoveBrown]

I'm not sure you can say that gold is used in jewellery solely because it is valuable. Gold has physical properties being nonreactive and soft enough to be worked without large scale machinery that makes it a perfect material for making shiny jewellery out by a single skilled artisan. Add in an element of rarity/scarcity and it's pretty much a virtuous circle for why gold is used in jewellery.

If the price of gold was to collapse tomorrow, it's use in jewellery would continue without pause.

[IkmoIkmo]

That may have been true a long time ago, but I highly doubt we'll be buying each other gold rings if they cost 50 cents in material like a plastic ring, or some shiny colored cheap metal ring, or any other easily malleable cheap and abundant material available today.

[wpietri]

Price is a balance between supply and demand. Gold's price is high because there is a lot of demand for use in jewelry and industry. Its monetary value isn't some intrinsic or historical fluke. The monetary value is underwritten by its utility.