Something being useless is a desirable quality for a currency, and gold, in addition to several other traits, was an optimal material specifically because of ho

Something being useless is a desirable quality for a currency, and gold, in addition to several other traits, was an optimal material specifically because of how useless it historically was. Where gold was used, it was for displaying wealth, for example in decorations and jewelry. Compare say steel - if your currency was based on steel, which historically was quite valuable because of its utility and difficulty in production, that means either perfectly good steel that could be used for tools that generate wealth is sitting useless in the form of coins, or people are smelting down the currency to make tools. And if your coinage derives its value from the utility of the material, what happens when someone develops a superior alloy, or figures out a cheaper production method? Do you stunt technological and economic growth to prevent hyperinflation? Nowadays gold has some niche industrial uses, but these uses are in competition with using gold as a store of value, which remains gold's dominant price driver by a wide margin, and thus you have, for example, artificially high prices on certain electronics that require gold.