I'll nitpick the "gold doesn't have intrinsic value" part: There's a limited supply of elemental gold on the planet, it takes some effort to extract it, and it

I'll nitpick the "gold doesn't have intrinsic value" part: There's a limited supply of elemental gold on the planet, it takes some effort to extract it, and it has unique electro-chemical properties that make it productively-useful for industries. You could consider the jewelry use of it to be "merely aesthetic", but I would argue that even in that aspect, it has demonstrated intrinsic value. So many cultures over so many hundreds of years have valued its use in to enhance beauty via jewelry, which you can think of as an aid in attracting mates, etc, which definitely has intrinsic value to many humans.