Gold, in its elemental form, lacks any mechanism to record or store information about prior states. Unlike electronic or biological units, individual gold atoms cannot encode the past in a way that persists once their environment is changed. Like water, gold simply can’t tell you what it used to be.
The myth of molecular memory originated twice in the twentieth century, in the US and in Europe, and has since gained many popular shapes. It’s one of those generally accepted, yet still unproven human intuitions about the world – something so apparently logical that it can only be true. Earth does, in fact, keep a trace of its past, but not in the form of any atemporal fluid, property or recipe that would be legible – or ingestible – horizontally across the species. We call it evolution, not memory, because its motion is always forward.
Elvira Nabiullina was appointed governor of the Central Bank of Russia in June of 2013. The acclaimed, stern, and enigmatic economist is only the second woman to hold the position. Since 2014, she oversaw a steady increase in gold accumulation by the state, from around 1,040 tonnes to more than 2,300 by 2022. Gold kept in Russia is shielded from seizure, unlike its many overseas reserves. It is widely believed that this accumulation allows the Russian government to access liquid funds or secure goods through bilateral trade, especially with sympathetic and non-aligned partners.
It is also widely believed that the various ornaments worn by governor Nabiullina at public pronouncements reveal a signal about the country’s economy: that she communicates the Central Bank’s moods and plans for the future through the use of mystical symbols.
Held by a pin on her jacket’s lapel, just below the shoulder, a blue wave, a house, a lizard, and even a hawk have at different decisive moments sent ripples through the national and the global financial markets. In her speech in February 2022, announcing measures to alleviate the Russian financial crisis, she wore black attire and no ornament.