Gold's chemical properties and rarity are what dive it's price. First gold is noncorrosive so it never tarnishes, meaning jewelry and coins of actual gold retain their luster for Thousands of years. Next gold is malleable meaning it was simple for ancient people to work with it. Applications like gold leaf aren't options with other metals. Next gold is a very good conductor so it's application in electronics results in a noncorrosive power efficient device. Another thing is golds weight. Gold has a high molecular weight and because of that it is used in applications like particle accelerator and early geiger counters. Finally rarity comes into play. An example of this is aluminum. When aluminum was difficult to produce and there for suplies were low aluminum cost upwards of $115 per pound, but today with new ways of refining aluminum the rarity dropped and it now costs 90 cents per pound.
