Yes, the Europeans. A lot of the world saw gold as largely uninteresting and at best decorative before European brought their gold and silver obsessions to the area.
And gold MEETS that definition, it does NOT in and of itself have value. I’m not making up a definition, I’m pointing out a basic piece of reality that gold bugs refuse to understand:
unless somebody is willing to take it in trade gold is 100% WORTHLESS. It has no intrinsic value, gold coins pressed by the government are just as much fiat currency as dollars. The value of money comes EXCLUSIVELY from people being willing to take it, if it had value outside of that trade people wouldn’t be willing to use it as currency, they’d be too busy using it for its value.
Guess you’re not a believer. I do ure you to read history farther back that European though. Good luck!