History of Gold

The Incas referred to gold as the "tears of the Sun."

Gold was first discovered as shining, yellow nuggets

Gold has always had value to humans, even before it was used as money.  This is demonstrated by the extraordinary efforts made to obtain it.  Prospecting for gold was a worldwide effort going back thousands of years

In the quest and hunger for gold by the Phoenicians, Egyptians, Indians, Hittites, Chinese, and others, prisoners of war were sent to work the mines, as were slaves and criminals

Gold was money back in ancient Greece.  The Greeks mined for gold throughout the Mediterranean and Middle East regions by 550 B.C., and both Plato and Aristotle wrote about gold and had theories about its origins.

The Greeks had mined gold from the Pillars of Hercules (Gibraltar) all the way eastward to Asia Minor and Egypt, and we find traces of their placer mines today.

The Roman Empire furthered the quest for gold. The Romans mined gold extensively throughout their empire, and advanced the science of gold-mining considerably

A monetary standard made the world economy possible. The concept of money, allowed the World's economies to expand and prosper. During the Classic period of Greek and Roman rule in the western world, gold and silver both flowed to India for spices, and then to  China for silk. At the height of the Empire (A.D. 98-160), Roman gold and silver coins reigned from Britain to North Africa and Egypt.
Money had been invented.  Its name was gold.

Governments store gold in bullion form like below