[JimmyL]

>> Gold has been money for thousand of years for good reason

Only if you consider "because it's shiny" to be a good reason. That's the historical basis for gold being valuable - it looks good (according to the tastes of medieval royalty) when made into a crown/necklace, is easy to form into a nice shape, and is relatively scarce based on our current technology. There's noting innate in gold that makes it more or less valuable as a currency than any other resource that exhibits scarcity.

What we consider valuable changes with the times - go back two thousand years and change and you'll see that the most valuable items tended to be exotic rocks, salt, and certain types of dye.

[kiba]

Gold doesn't corrode, easily divisible, is portable are just many reasons why gold has been the money of choice.

In the desert, salt is worth more than gold.

Other part of the world, they use cows.

Like you say, it all depend on the circumstances, how much gold there is. However, gold has continued to be the money of choice for civilizations for thousand of years. It withstood the test of time and to this day continued to be regarded as a valuable commodity.

Ultimately, the value of gold is a subjective one.

[zandorg]

I wanted to know what gold-pressed latinum was, having heard about it on Deep Space 9. I looked it up 2 weeks ago. It's basically a currency which can't be beamed or replicated, thus preserving its value as a currency.

Interesting, and according to Wikipedia, first devised in the short story series: Venus Equilateral.