Economic Collapse - Numismatic Coins Vs Bullion

Hoarding bullion or numismatics in case of economic collapse, is like hoarding glasses and cups in case of a worldwide drought.

Food, water, ammo, guns, medications, toilet paper, soap, toothpaste, fire, first aid supplies, batteries, gas and whatever you use today to get by. That should come first before worrying about coins, bartering is not going to be about metals it is going to be about necessities if things get that bad.

I agree with Henry2. You can't eat silver and gold.

..... <sigh> .....

This is a depressing and self-defeating mindset to have.


What gold?! Reverting to the gold standard will cause the good old U.S.A. so many more exciting new problems that if the economy is already shattered, this action would grind the shards into dust and then snort it. There is more money in the USD then there is gold in the entire world, and the Euro has surpassed the USD in "aggregate amount of currency in circulation". To make all this circulating currency fit our much smaller gold reserves, we would have to massively devalue the USD even more... which is what most gold nuts DON'T want...

Go even farther - forget the bullets! Argentina had an honest-to-God collapse just after 2000 (it was unrelated, we swear) and the cities were the first to get the utilities switched back on. Some co-operatives hardly even paused production during this time. The people who bugged out to a little cabin in the woods, though? They got shot! Incredibly, a high concentration of people looking to abandon civilization and the law leads to roving criminal gangs, and before long you're calling up one-armed ex-Soviet used tank sellers because you have trapped yourself in an idiotic arms race to out-libertarian every other libertarian around you.

I know no one is really answering your question, so........

You said it yourself, in a new monetary system backed by gold, there would be no numismatics, the value of the gold in your coin would be it's monetary value. That is the gold based system.

I really think that the overwhelming majority of the people here are not collecting to preserve their wealth, quite to the contrary in fact, we appear to be bleeding our wealth dry.

I really think that you could count on two hands, how many people here are seriously stacking PM's before the " big meltdown. " This is a hobby, sometimes you luck out, but a hobby (I think all will agree)not a hedge or an investment strategy.

There is only one final exit strategy. My tomb will read " Is it over yet ? Did I win ? "

Backing a currency with metal creates more problems than it solves. You have to constantly be at war amassing more and more metal as the wealth of your country and population grows. Its one reason why Rome fell once they stopped expanding. It also doesn't leave any wiggle room in times of crisis. The US had to be bailed out by private wealth in its early days, and the Romans started debasing their money to compensate when necessary.

Granted most of the worlds population would die in a world wide collapse making it more doable, but the days of metal currencies are over. Theres not enough metal to go around with todays populations and its too restrictive in down times. Theres numerous examples of other metals or bills being put into play during hard times throughout history of pm based currencies.




Which is actually smart if someone thinks it really will happen. Pleasure items would have great value as opposed to heavy metals that would have to be lugged around.




It really depends on your economic situation. Theres definitely times when bullion can be very profitable, but without a price increase you will lose value just from buy and sell rates converting money back and forth to pay bills. Someone living pay check to pay check would likely be better off just leaving their money as is unless they time it right.

If you live comfortably or have a lot saved up you could do well putting a percentage into bullion. Its not that they represent a historical store of value, theres only certain times when that holds true adjusting for inflation as theres just as many times if not more going year to year where they would have lost value. But during uncertainty everyone runs to PMs which gives a good change of a fast value run up like we saw a few years back and in the 80s.

On the flip side though you can also do pretty good in the long run with numismatics once bullion has topped out. A lot of things prices are down from a couple years ago, and if you expect a recovery at some point its a good time to buy stuff while its cheaper than it used to be. Kind of like stocks how picking the right things during the crash can get you great values dirt cheap when everyone else is selling out of fear.




Well said. Its more about just liking coins than anything. On the bright side its a lot better than going out and blowing 100+ dollars at the bar every night.