Gold is only good in crisis investing. Long term the price doesn't rise and the storage costs cut gains.
It and silver are not a scarce as one may think. When the price gets real high, the gold jewelry wearers in India and other places cash out and suddenly there is a lot on the market.
True. The US government has coined millions of silver eagles in the last twenty years, "using up" its surplus stockpiles. But those coins are all still around, and will come out of the woodwork when the price is right, not to mention Aunt Minnie's sterling tea service that survived the last silver spike. Of course, the "right price" might be $50 an ounce like it was before. Or, if the rumors are true about a looming need for massive short covering, it might be $100 an ounce...might be.