In SHTF situation, the true barter is what you can offer in terms of goods and services. People with carpentry skills will do well. Ditto those who can grow food or hunt. Especially those with medical skills.
If you are just some schmuck with a vault of gold, well good luck to you.
“There are actually people out there that think you can slap a bar of gold on the counter for a gallon of milk and expect change!”
The gold gold is for after a couple of years passes, and SHTF is over. And now you would like to be somewhere reasonably close financially to where you were before.
It should remain hidden throughout the “STHF”. But nice straw man.