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jfengelyesterday at 2:31 AM2 repliesview on HN

True, but only a minuscule fraction of it is used for that purpose. If that were the sole source of its value, it would be worth pennies per once.


Replies

roenxiyesterday at 2:40 AM

https://pse-info.de/en/scale/price - gold doesn't stand out, there are a few similar ones (Rhodium/Palladium/Iridium/Platinum). I haven't checked, but we'd probably find the gold price sits in a boring-looking distribution of the prices of other elements. Probably an exponential or something that could be mistaken for it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prices_of_chemical_elements if you prefer wikipedia.

If it wasn't radioactive, poisonous and pyrophoric people would probably all just leap into the Neptunium market.

TylerEyesterday at 4:07 AM

That is obviously false on it's face.

If it were only worth pennies an ounce, numerous industries wouldn't be paying what they do for it. The fact that many industries value it at several thousand dollars an ounce is self-evident from their continued use of it.

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