There was something between barter and gold. Currencies like salt, rare shells, rai stones, to name a few. Gold coins replaced those. While the other currencies were local, gold worked globally (well, almost, it didn't get to the Americas). See the parallel between contemporary local fiat currencies and the global bitcoins?
Why do you insist with gold? I said already that I am not a "gold bug". To me, the speculative overvaluation of gold is almost as bad as that of bitcoin. ("Almost" only because gold does have some intrinsic value, although it has little infuence in the gold's market price.)