Though gold was known to the ancients, being the only metal typically found in the elemental state, it was too soft for making weapons and was perhaps not much used at first, even for ornamental purposes. Even where it was relatively abundant, such as in parts of Australia and New Zealand, aboriginal peoples have often ignored it. In Europe, Africa and Asia, however, the metal was generally highly prized and was soon taken up for jewellery and then for coin. The first coins were stamped out of electrum, a natural alloy of gold and silver, in Lydia in the seventh century BCE. Around 550 BCE King Croesus minted purer silver and gold coins, and from then on the yellow metal was man's chosen element for the expression of great wealth. Backed by state authority, Croesus' coinage boosted trade and banking. For gold to hold its greater value as coin against native electrum it had to be pure, and its purity had to be ascertainable by assay. With this, gold became subject to comparative testing and valuation as well as absolute worship. Six hundred years later, Pliny is scathing about the corrupting effect of gold, which he wished 'could be completely banished from life.' He damns equally those who wear it and those who trade with it: 'The first person to put gold on his fingers committed the worst crime against human life.' 'The second crime against mankind was committed by the person who first struck a gold denarius.' The difficulty lies not with the material itself but with man's transforming hands upon it. Natural gold may contain the light of the sun, but minted gold becomes a 'symbol of perversion and the exaltation of unclear desire.' Sir Thomas More confirms this moral distinction in his Utopia, reserving its gold not for finery but for making chamberpots. In the context of the reading, what does the word reserving most closely mean?

A. getting
B. keeping
C. giving up
D. making