# If gold were valued only for its practical uses, how much would it be worth? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 21, 2010, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-gold-were-valued-only-for-its-practical-uses-how-much-would-it-be-worth/557857 "2010-10-21T02:44:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2010, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-gold-were-valued-only-for-its-practical-uses-how-much-would-it-be-worth/557857/21 "2010-10-22T17:04:38Z")
> [@](#): > > Gold has a pretty high thermal conductivity, I could see it being used in a variety of thermally conductive applications like radiators or PC heatsinks as well. Copper is at least comparable, there, and possibly better, and even if gold isn’t valued as a medium of exchange, it’s still going to be more expensive than copper just by virtue of its rarity. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2010, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-gold-were-valued-only-for-its-practical-uses-how-much-would-it-be-worth/557857/22 "2010-10-22T17:10:51Z")
Well, based upon it’s cost and rarity, the price should be around $400/oz or so. The current price is mostly bubble, brought on by speculators. This bubble will burst soon, no doubt, leaving a bunch of amatuers in the dust. Since gold can be very very thin and still useful, I imagine it’s practical usage would be more common at that price. So, that’s my WAeG. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-gold-were-valued-only-for-its-practical-uses-how-much-would-it-be-worth/557857.md?page=1)