How is gold used?

The gold standard uses money backed up by gold. Ancient business used goods as a way of exchange. As trades grew, metals were also used as a way of trade because they were much easier to exchange. Gold was the best and looked up an as the "GOD" metal. The making of coins, made it even easier to exchange. The use of silver and gold coins spread across the trading world, and even till today. That's how the Gold standard was created

Source: World of Scientific Discovery; Gold