Much to the chagrin of the merchants of Snowpoint, a Snorunt's cloak is not actually made of gold. True gold is a much heavier, denser substance; a pokemon which wore it would have to be stronger than a steel type not to collapse under its own weight. These heavy cloaks are discarded when the Snorunt hibernate during the summer, and left outside the homes of whichever human had treated them with the most kindness during the previous year.
Humans are apt to make any shiny metal a medium of exchange, and the north of Sinnoh is not known for its mines. Snorunt cloaks were the base for the heavy, triangular coins of ancient Snowpoint and its environs, and remained that way for centuries. Yet unlike most other pokemon with a valuable body part, be it fur or perfume or nearly anything else imaginable, no tradition ever developed of hunting or farming Snorunt. Battles could damage the cloak's luster, and worse, offered a tell-tale sign of the method of capture; combat-won cloaks were looked on in that era as something akin to counterfeiting. And efforts to domesticate Snorunt for their cloaks fizzled out when the Snorunt gave the cloaks not to trainers or overseers, but to neighboring houses seemingly at random. This brought forth the widespread belief that Snorunt would grant good fortunes not only on those who treated one with kindness, but on those who lived worthy, upstanding lives as well.
In time, Snorunt cloaks became so beloved as heirlooms and symbols of good fortune that they were used to make jewelery and only sold when families came upon hard times. The carvings made from these cloaks, with their distinctive three-diamond pattern, are commonly worn in Snowpoint to this day.