In Ancient Egypt, the concept of MONEY did not exist - And gold was plentiful!

And so gold would be shaped beautifully and put everywhere! Shaped into all of the gods and goddesses, to be made into instruments, and woven into clothing. Gold to be boldly displayed right in public! Items of pure gold would be everywhere, and of course, purely HAND-MINED over 5000 years ago!

And most metal is so hard to work with! But gold is soft, and easy to make complex tools with - Even ancient medical tools. But only if cheap and plentiful.

And there must be an absence of LUST for gold and money.

The workers of Ancient Egypt were paid in bread and beer and fine spiced meats, and the workers would go on strike if the food was not good enough. Money was worthless.

And gold was beautiful and all could see.

But now the gold is hidden. Even with machines able to mine it, the gold cannot be displayed! Its beauty is taken from the Earth and then squandered away deep in vaults and evil lairs, to be touched only by the most rich and corrupt, rather than artisans and poets and those who commune with the oldest of gods and goddesses.

Those days are over; we now live in a world without beauty.

And yet the geologist within me whispers an intriguing hypothesis: "What if gold is considerably more common than we had thought, and there is so much of it in certain locations, that it's almost a joke to consider it "valuable" above other metals?"