Gold has a lot of practical applications now (although is of course still treated as a ‘precious’ metal of value), but hundreds of years ago it was just a shiny metal. Why did it demand value, because of it’s rarity? Why not copper, because it was too easily found? What made it valuable ahead of other similar metals?

  • Chainweasel@lemmy.world
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    18 days ago

    Copper tarnishes quickly and forms a green patina in salty sea air, and the vast majority of ancient settlements happened to be on the coast.

    I live in an older town about 700 miles from the ocean, they recently restored our courthouse with a new copper roof to replace the one from 1824 and it had a green patina in less than a year.
    I don’t think salty air is a requirement for patina, just oxygenation.