Gold is money because it is liquid and easily traded, with a narrow spread between the prices to buy and sell (about 1%). Also, people buy gold bullion because it is easily transportable, because it has a high value for its weight. This makes gold an excellent medium of exchange. There is not a single other commodity with those attributes, except, perhaps, for silver. But silver is substantially heavier, and not really suitable for transactions in excess of $1 million. The market took a slight decline on the slip of silver making gold investments worth slightly more in todays market.
