I know this question can come across as stupid, but I am wondering about it. What are the properties of Gold that make it so valuable? It is obvious to me, that nowadays the value of something can be its exchange value - as is the case with money. Assuming that gold has not always been the primary means of exchange, I assume that there is some reason for it to become valuable. So how did that happen? Is it just it's "reflections"? It's ability to be worked easily? Are there any serious theories about it? I don't want to pose it as a philosophical question about 'value-theory' but rather, as a historical question regarding the evidence for the beginning of the use as gold as means of exchange.
Were there any other metals that were more valuable? If yes, for which reasons, and why did they eventually become less important?
If there are any other interesting narratives about this, I'm also curious. Right now I'm working on a small presentation that also involves the gold-standard, so if there are any other historical turning points regarding the appreciation of gold/metals, I would be curious to know about it.
Hope someone can help me.
This will be a quite simple answer, but the main reason is scarcity. This had a double function: first, rare things tend to be valued higher by virtue of said rarity; second, it is harder to inflate.
The latter is really a big factor, and it can also be seen in different attitudes (and the results of these) towards gold. Let's for example look at the Spanish colonial empire. When they sailed around, they began to find a lot of precious metals, which they, since they saw them as highly valuable, wanted to bring back home. When the supply lines were established properly they absolutely tanked the Spanish economy by having too much of the valuable thing. This is also why just spamming new money today doesn't work - if everyone can wave around 1000$ bills, then they don't mean anything. In contrast, as far as I have read, the locals valued gold for stuff like jewelry, as it was nice looking and easy to work with, but as they had a pretty decent amount, it wasn't scarce and thus not a solid foundation of their economy.
If you want an interesting example of the first point (scarcity) being used to value something very unconventional, then you might want to look up the great rocks of Easter Island. The TLDR of those is that they were pretty large (and difficult to transport) and rare on the island, so the locals saw these rocks as a symbol of value.
Hope this helps a bit