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The only reason precious metals are actually valuable is because they can be used for other things, whereas gemstones have no real use beyond fashion that I can think of (maybe work for diamonds, but that's a different thing.) In any case, the value of anything is really only what someone is willing to pay for it and what they think it's worth. Also, if someone has a large amount of gold bullion, they probably have the guns and ammo to protect it too. The only problem with it is it's heavy, which is why the dollar was created in the first place. But at least at that point it was backed by something.