Nothing comes from nothing.
—Parmenides (475 BCE)

Early this year, a gold coin collection was unearthed in Hungary depicting the face of Roman Emperor Volusianus, a man who ruled for only two years, making the find very rare. Ever since Romans were mining gold, there have been coins and jewelry that, due to their value, were passed down with care or melted and recast. For generations, thousands of tons of gold have been excavated from the Earth each year, adding to the overall pool of gold available for use and circulation by humankind. This accumulation of gold above ground oscillates as a metamorphosing material reservoir that flows through the forms of coins, watches, rings, and bars. But for the first time in human history, gold is leaving the supply. People are burying hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of gold in landfills each year because it’s easier to dispose of entire smartphones than deconstruct them for the 30mg of gold they each contain inside.