On a Question of Mastery

Had a friend ask me a question about fantasy.

The logical and rational thinking of the modern world is a literal inhibitor to our ability to imagine a fantastic reality. It crowds out fantastic ideas and results in an incredible sameness to the large numbers of fantasy settings out there. More damaging it makes us unwilling to engage in something that pushes the boundaries of the fantastic due to the frustration of attempting to assimilate a new world order.

The question was, "Where does all this gold come from?"

My first response was from the fantastic realism angle.

Consider a world that's been through countless Aeons. Not just one roman empire, but thousands of empires. Cities built upon cities built upon cities. Mega-structures built and long forgotten beneath the ground. Every kingdom, nation, and realm minting their own coin, toiled, extracting it from within the earth, or from within the confines of another civilization.

So there's that.

I then mentioned that this doesn't even begin to touch upon the realm of the fantastic. Perhaps there are portals deep within the earth, perhaps it is the excrement of giant purple worms that have very cities in their interior, perhaps earth spontaneously cycles through different types of materials.

How many fantastic origins of gold and coins can we list?