I always thought the reason gold became so valuable to many human societies was that its really unreactive and doesnt corrode over time as easily so it seems ageless, and you can easily determine its quality without advanced tools (touchstones).

In terms of actual value lead is now more valuable than gold. I always think that’s ironic.

The other fantastic thing is you can turn lead into gold you just need to ton of radiation and the end result will be that you have less valuable product. And also it’s radioactive so you can’t use it anyway.