(A) applies to a number of metals, including ruthenium, iridium, rhodium, and osmium, all of which are less abundant than gold. Although industrial demand has c

(A) applies to a number of metals, including ruthenium, iridium, rhodium, and osmium, all of which are less abundant than gold. Although industrial demand has caused the price of those to rise in recent years, the difficulty of extracting them gave them essentially no value historically. Production difficulty may cause the production cost of a given asset to rise, but in a market that must also be met with equivalent demand lest the effort be in vain. For example, I could go outside, pick up a large rock, and spend the next several days crushing it into a fine powder. This would be a fairly difficult process, and yet the end product would be worthless. Rarity does not automatically equate to value. (B) is perhaps gold's most unique physical property, but given the historical prominence of silver (a metal that corrodes rather easily), I seriously doubt that this alone justifies a single ounce of gold historically having been worth an average person's months of wages. (C) is true of many metals, and has only come into existence as a method for verifying gold in more recent years, which again belies its historical value.