You cannot eat gold, but you sure can buy food with it.
So, what did the rich people use to buy food, and what food was preferred.
To explain, they really do grow a lot of tulips in Nederland ~ they eat them too but mostly they grow them as little storehouses against famine, disaster, financial collapse, or whatever.
With the flooding in Walcherin, an island mostly below sealevel, they had the disaster of the last 1000 years.
The best currency for buying the only food available ~ the ever present tulip bulb, was a DIAMOND or other GEM STONE. They are light, easy to store, etc. The least desirable currency was GOLD. It's heavy, hard to store, enemy troops are always looking for it since it comes in discrete chunks (gold coins) that area actually quite difficult to hide when you are surrounded by 16 feet of cold, dark, nasty seawatter.
Diamonds on the other hand are hideable ~ even if only in cracks in the timbers of the house holding up the roof.
So, no, when it gets really bad, you are ahead with gem stones, and behind with heavy metals.
The ancients might take off on a journey with a few jewels which they'd exchange for currencies of gold, silver, electrum, copper, bronze, brass ~ whatever ~ once they'd arrived.