How did cultures in the new world and the old world both independently place a value on gold?

Well one of the reasons why gold back then, including now, was considered so valuable besides just it's visual appeal and relative scarcity, is the fact that gold does not corrode at all, which is a reason why it is so valuable/practical for storing wealth assuming no rampant devaluing which can happen with any type of currency/good. Also, many ancient people b/c of this ability to never corrode, naturally assumed there was some type of mystical property to gold, and was somehow blessed/given by the gods. Many cultures, especially in the Americas (central, South, Carribean), thus used gold simply for the gods(typically), and did not use it/value it in the way we today are typically used to since we base our value of it today more so on European/Old World opinion of it. The Native people of the new world thus were quite perplexed/didn't understand the seemingly unsatisfiable desire for it the Europeans had. For Europeans, precious metals were especially important b/c when dealing with either the Indian Ocean Trade and the other Asian markets such as China, the Europeans really didn't have any goods to trade with for things such as spices and silk that these markets desired, and thus relied on the pretty much universal appeal of precious metal. So the Europeans especially needed precious metals in order to attain the luxury goods they desired.

That's basically all the reasons I can think of off the top of my head about gold. I could maybe expand a little more on gold, but I could more on silver at this point, but you didn't ask for that.