4 ms·
Fascinating! I’ve never seen the point of owning gold and have wondered why people would buy gold coins (or why they sell simply for the price of the underlyin
by gumby 4y ago
Fascinating! I’ve never seen the point of owning gold and have wondered why people would buy gold coins (or why they sell simply for the price of the underlying content) rather than just buying plain old bars of whatever size.
I still don’t understand why people buy gold but at least I now see why it’s sensible to buy coins.
My mum married draped in gold jewelry which was too soft to be worn again. I’ve seen the photos and saw the gold as a kid in their safe deposit box, where it’s sat for 60 years. Given that she moved to the west, what was the point?
- nine_k 4y agoGold is often (though not all the time) anti-cyclical: as stock market goes down, gold goes up. It can be used as a hedge.
- justinzollars 4y agoThe reason to own gold is that there is no counter party risk. It can also help transfer wealth between incompatible systems. If there is a currency reset, lost war, or you end up a refugee - Gold is a great option.
- cowthulhu 4y agoThat’s assuming gold keeps its value in that sort of event! Not that I think that’s unlikely, since we have a long history of lusting after gold and generally appreciating shiny things… but given the metal itself has relatively little utility, it’s like an other currency in that it ultimately relies on people perceiving it as valuable for it to actually be, well, valuable!
- coffeebeqn 4y agoI can’t really think of anything that would have a better chance in a WW3 scenario for example. Any currency could get devalued to heck due to war killing their economy, crypto needs a global trustworthy internet and a China/U.S. could launch a cyber attack on the local chain, etc. Maybe potato seedlings or canned meat will be more reliable
- cowthulhu 4y agoYeah definitely… outside of like, things that do stuff (seeds, medicine, etc.) gold probably has the best chance of still being worth something in almost any scenario! And it’s very dense value-wise and easy to store, which can’t be said for the others!
- Koshkin 4y ago> relatively little utility I wouldn’t call being used in virtually all microchips “little utility,” even relatively.
- cowthulhu 4y agoIt’s hard to imagine a situation where the currencies of the world devalue to zero, but the semiconductor fabs keep working.
- lucubratory 4y agoSure, but there are plenty of plausible futures where the currency of one country, even a major country like China or the USA, has their currency completely devalued, and semiconductor fabs keep working.
- cowthulhu 4y agoOooh yeah definitely, no argument from me there. I’m more stating that it doesn’t have much utility in a huge catastrophe where we can’t make microchips.
- coffeebeqn 4y agoMany people have many reasons. Lots of prepper types. Personally I just think it’s cool and fun. Much more satisfying than just seeing a number go up on a website. It’s very cumbersome and dangerous to have a lot of gold though. There isn’t a great solution to storing it. Even a safety deposit box at a bank isn’t insured to more than I believe $200 of precious metals. So if the bank burns or floods or the feds seize it or it goes bankrupt then you probably won’t see that box again. I wouldn’t buy more because of that and also since it’s physical there are a lot of fees - shipping, insuring, storing, mining-refining-minting cost, fees from sellers, low ball offers when you sell yourself, etc. Big headache for larger amounts. But having a few thousand dollars in that form is neat. And it’s a bit of a hedge against any bad event - you can put a few in your pocket and land in any major city in the world and cash it in immediately. Plus there are not really any other things that have held significant value for thousands of years. Other than perishables - so great for time traveling too
- razius 4y ago[dead]