Gold and gemstones have been the stuff of legend for millennia. From the Americas to Asia, they have mythical status as stores of worldly, and often otherworldly, riches. Archaeologists have found evidence dating back to 1500BC that itinerant Irish metalworkers were crafting gold torcs and jewellery thought to have religious significance, for Bronze Age Europeans. At the same time, the Egyptians were adorning their pharaohs’ funerary masks with gold and lapis lazuli, and women in the Indus valley were treasuring gold bangles and head bands.

For centuries, gold was the standard by which most things could be measured. Countries used it to back their currencies until 1971 when the US stopped anchoring gold to the dollar. Even now, governments and central banks across the world hold close to one-fifth of the world’s bullion with the US Federal Reserve being the world’s biggest holder.