I think part of the problem most people have is in distinguishing the differnce between gold as a long term investment medium versus a short term element of barter.
If there was some kind of breakdown, and you had something that somebody wanted/needed, what would you be more likely to accept for it?
Cash?
Food?
Stocks and/or other pieces of paper that are easily forged/counterfeited?
Gold/silver?
Guns/ammo?
No doubt, if there is a disruption, you would see alot of gold plated stuff being traded as the real thing. I doubt if very many people at all know how to tell the difference.
Bottom line, get at least a months worth of sustainable goods together. Remember when those Pasta Fettucini thingies were on sale for 3/dollar at the Safeway?
Buy it now and hold it.
I love it when people make all these grandiose plans for the future and retirement! There was a time when it was practical. But it is gradually giving way to pie-in-the-sky status.
Actually, no. It's easy to tell gold from gold plated lead, because it's almost twice as heavy. So a gold plated fake Krugerrand is the easiest counterfeit in the world to detect. Plus, you would need to invest in an extremely expensive minting machine and dies just to make even look-alike fake gold coins, not just a paper copying machine. If you try to make cast (poured in molds) fake coins, they would be spotted as fakes ten feet away, even BEFORE they were tossed on the gram scale.