The following article is offered for informational purposes only, and is not intended to provide, and should not be relied on for, investment advice. Speak with your broker about what suits your financial goals.
Gold and silver have served as money for thousands of years, long before paper or digital currency existed. People valued them for the same reasons every time: they’re scarce, durable, and hard to counterfeit, which makes them a dependable way to store and trade value.
Gold came first
Gold came first as a medium of exchange. The ancient Egyptians used it, Greece and Rome minted it into coins, and medieval Europe ran on gold coinage. Eventually many countries tied their paper money directly to it under the gold standard, fixing a currency’s worth to a set amount of metal.
Silver’s parallel path
Silver followed a parallel path. It circulated as coin in ancient China, Greece, and Rome, stayed in use across medieval Europe, and anchored its own silver standard in plenty of economies. For long stretches of history, the two metals backed money side by side.
The reasons they were trusted in the first place are the reasons they’re still held today.
From coinage to store of value
That changed in the 20th century, when countries moved off metal standards and onto fiat currencies backed by nothing physical. Gold and silver didn’t disappear, though. They shifted from everyday coinage to a store of value people hold when they want something outside the banking system.
That instinct hasn’t gone anywhere, it’s the same reason central banks keep buying gold. If you want to hold the real thing, a registered account can even keep it inside your RRSP or TFSA.
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Topic:
History
