> And, if things really are completely collapsing, nobody wants gold. They'll want something much more immediately useful--food, clothing, ammunition, etc. I'm

> And, if things really are completely collapsing, nobody wants gold. They'll want something much more immediately useful--food, clothing, ammunition, etc. I'm not sure I buy that. Barter for an intermediary is fundamentally useful. In a case of societal collapse, people with food/clothing/ammunition--or people who can provide useful services (like driving me to the nearest border) aren't going to want more food/clothing/ammunition--they're going to want something fungible that they can trade for what they need! So, sure, there's probably some rare scenario where gold (ideally in small, easily verifiable discrete units, not big bars) is useful.