A Question If There's A Financial Meltdown.

20 years ago I traveled a lot to Colombia and Venezuela for business. It gave me a pretty good idea how currency devaluation works.

For annual devaluation of 25-50%, the company I worked for gave raises at least twice a year to compensate. People tended to spend the extra money as fast as possible to get better buying power. It was hard to exchange money sometimes (especially in Venezuela) because the more stable dollars tended to replace the local currency in the host country. People were always interested in buying dollars even if the banks were forbidden to. And there was never any point in hanging onto the currency when I left the countries because its value was greatly dimished when I returned 6 months later.

I don't remember seeing any places that exchanged precious metals. Maybe it was against the law, the same as the restriction on dollar exchange. It suggests that the exchanging of PM bars might be restricted if the government intervenes to stabilize the currency. This would leave the owner will having to sell on the black market, at heavy discounts.

Over 20 years I've watched the value of the dollar go down against gold, at a rate of 5-10% a year. At that rate of devaluation it's hard to notice on an annual basis.

Interesting perspective.
Indeed, though aluminum is literally all around us (in clay, for example), the process to recover aluminum metal is devilishly complicated, and without electricity, you cannot produce aluminum.

In a post-apocalyptic world, aluminum and many other substances (including plastics), would be "mined" from landfills, taking advantage of earlier technologies which are no longer available.

I have heard the warnings of a financial collapse for many years, so I am somewhat immune to the speculation. Since we have had not a financial collapse in many decades, and given that our society has been radically transformed by technology, it's not clear what role gold would have in a collapse. Bare minimum, gold will remain a store of value that allows people to maintain their purchasing power. Silver could be used locally for bartering or trade. I think that precious metals would be held as reserves by the elites, and the common people would simply barter until the financial system is rebuilt.

Gold and silver as money was not planned, it occurred naturally because they have properties that most look for in money. There is no reason to guess about the future because history has many examples of catastrophic collapse from which we can learn. After the collapse people barter, but barter is highly inefficient and a PITA. Nature will soon take its course and the use of PMs as a store of wealth would quickly resume, if history is any guide.

There won't be a financial meltdown.
We all recovered from the Great Depression of the 1930's, and the GFC of 2008.

In 2008, my superannuation value halved and three years later, it was bigger and better than before.

At the end of it all,
it wouldn't have made the slightest difference if I had been invested on bullion or not.
So just have some fun as a stacker instead.

Oh! Yes! I do ]have a gold stater of Philip 11 of Macedon, but that's not a part of my bullion investment.

Look at the scifi movies made into the future, they all use (credits) or coins even then.

We are in the age of the zombie. Gold has had value for thousands of years, and there has always been an exchange service.


History proves otherwise.