the pit falls of gold / silver in a survival situation

this mini rant is an oblique snipe at threads telling you to hoard gold / silver - bullion etc

my advice :

think VERY carefully - because the usefullness of such bullion is - surprisingly limited

for bullion to be usefull - the reciepent must belive that :

they too will survive
there will be a market for the bullion

that is why it ONLY works in limited LOCALISED disasters


the SAS and other military units issue gold soverigns [ or other couns ] to troops operating behind enemy lines

and they work - because the target audience has some confindence that if they take the money and aid the troops - when they reach ` freindly ` terretory - tbhhe will be able to spend it safely AND its value is several times thier current P/A income

in circumstances like ` hurricane katria ` bullion would have been usefull - to get a total stanger to drive you and your familit to huston Tx - because he would be confident that huston was still standing - and contained a " noermal market "

if you really think that the entire world is going to come crashing down - and civilisation as we know it will fail almost totally

then bullion is chuff useless

in mid term survival stakes - you would be far better off with :

a box of 1000 single edged razor blades , or

200 di hydro coedine tablets , or

a gerber micro multi tool

in short - anything that is USEFULL

Because desipite what you think - gold / silver has little / no intrinsic value

for its supposed " value " to be realised - you need a market - were gold is traded at a set price .

PS - last parting shot

if you are thinking about the ` long haul ` when civilisation will rebuild - and the value of bullion will be restored - forget it

by that time the survivors will have figured out how to get into babk vaults and other areas - and helped them selves

the gold you paid for - will be compeeting with ` loot ` which the current owners did not - and they will have more than you , devaluing yours

Since situation X covers a wide variety of possible scenarios, I think that it is hard to justify the total absence of gold. If, one has the savings, etc. to by it in the first place. Otherwise, it's a moot point.

I, for instance, trust gold in my hand far more than any bank or stock. If War breaks out in the Mid-east and gas goes to 10-12 bucks a gallon, Gold might not be a bad asset to have around!

I think it's a bit short sighted to think that gold or silver will have no use. I certianly wouldn't put all my money into gold and silver, but having some around isn't a bad idea.

The reason being, if we look at history, the collapse of any great civilization is never an overnight event. Even if there were a world wide disaster, say a meteor strike or super volcano, or something along those lines, threads of civilization would continue to exist even if it's just for awhile. We're nto going to wake up one day and just see the world transformed from how it is now to complete anarchy. So the gold and silver would be incredibly useful in the time leading up to the collapse.

For example, anything that causes the U.S. government to collapse will cause the U.S. dollar to devalue. So let's say three nukes go off on U.S. soil. We're not going to be in complete chaos right away, but with the economy in ruins and the banking system gone, all those dollars and cents you have sitting in a banking account or in your wallet will be worthless. But gold and silver won't be, at least not right away.

I think that's why people are encouraging, at least from what I've seen, people to have some gold, not to blow all their money on silver and gold coins and live like an isolationist pirate. Obviously, real goods are irreplaceable. But given the unpredictable nature of the hypothetical Situation X everyone talks about, having something of value like gold or silver to buy somethin you might not have expected to need, like iodine suppliments to prevent radiation posioning, or things like that, isn't a bad idea.

Just my 2 cents anyway.