From a monetary point of view, gold has certain well-known physical characteristics that have never been better described than by W. Stanley Jevons in his classic little book, Money and the Mechanism of Exchange, is where most of the information in this paragraph comes from.

Gold has been a commodity of universal demand for countless generations, and is highly prized by both the most advanced and the most primitive peoples, largely due to its beauty and rarity. Pure gold is homogeneous, or uniform throughout the mass, so equal weights will always have the same value because it has a large value packed into a small volume.

Gold, like other metals but unlike skins, precious stones, and the majority of other things, can be divided without losing its divisibility. Gold nuggets can be easily cut into pieces without damaging the gold, and the pieces themselves can be easily restored to their original form without damaging the gold.

Gold is extremely durable because its owners carefully guard it due to its high value. Gold's high degree of value stability is largely attributable to this fact and its remarkable durability.

Gold has been extracted from the earth by humans for thousands of years before Christ. The "accumulation of the ages" is our current supply, and the majority of it is easily marketable due to its relatively unspecialized form, such as gold coins and gold bars. The world's annual gold production, which was only about 4% of the world's known monetary gold stock for a few years prior to the Second World War, has very little effect on the value of such a large marketable supply.