Post #4368782
2026-08-03 17:07 UTC
It's interesting to think about how amethyst was for millennia considered as valuable as diamonds, rubies, sapphires, and emeralds.
The they discovered loads of them in Brazil, and now they are not a rare, expensive gem anymore.
Imagine if people discovered huge amounts of gold somewhere -- so much gold that gold was suddenly just a run-of-the-mill trinket -- something that you could buy nuggets of at rock and crystal shops for a few bucks.
Replies (1)
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@MLE_online@social.afront.org 2026-08-03 17:08
Aluminum had a similar, but different story arc. Metallic aluminum isn't found in nature, and it was once very difficult to produce it, so it was a rare and valuable metal. There are monuments here and there made of aluminum because it was prestigious. But then we figured out how to make it much more easily, and now aluminum is a lowly packaging material