Does gold have some sort of magical properties to retain its value?

[Mr Khan]

It does make the whole concept of the gold standard seem rather silly, given that its only advantage over fiat currency is that a country has to tweak its balance of trade in order to mess with its currency values, rather than just ordering money printed or buying up a hell of a lot of assets to alter supply. But the underlying idea is still about arbitrarily assigning value to something.

Granted, gold is also a very useful metal, similar to Platinum or the Rare Earths.