The lack of utility is a valuable trait for a currency. If a one dollar steel coin can be turned into a 5 dollar tool, then why would you keep your steel in the

The lack of utility is a valuable trait for a currency. If a one dollar steel coin can be turned into a 5 dollar tool, then why would you keep your steel in the form of coins? But if you are trading in manufactured goods, you are essentially just bartering. Gold also benefits from its high density. If you are expecting 100 grams of money and have a scale that is accurate to 1 gram, someone can shave off .5 grams of material and convince you they are still giving you the full amount. The lighter money is, the more accurate your scales must be. On the other hand, making coins of the same material twice as heavy means using twice as much material: which both increases its bulkiness and cuts the number of coins in circulation in half. Making your coins from a dense material means you can have lots of small, easily carried coins instead of a smaller number of big bulky ones. Gold was the densest material known to antiquity and remains one of the densest materials on Earth.