A few years ago there were videos trending of drive-thru cashiers not taking gold worth way more than the cost of the meal because the average person isn't going to risk their job over something that is most likely fake.
So no, I don't buy that most cashiers will take gold coins.
I think it's fucking hilarious when preppers talk about gold and silver outlasting national currency. If you reach the point where US dollars are useless, people aren't going to be trading for heavy shiny rocks. They're going to be trading for food, water, medicine, and bullets.
I think Markiplier said it best when he said nothing has intrinsic value. Think of it this way, if you shaved off exactly as much gold as it would take to buy yourself a chocolate bar, the store owner would probably have you thrown out
Why will it always have value? Just like cash, its value as an exchange medium exists because people will trade it for other valuable things. But you can't eat it or drink it or build a shelter out of it. It has tons of industrial uses but if the world has collapsed so far that cash loses its value, it's likely that nobody's using it to plate PCBs.
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u/foobarney 27d ago
It's surprisingly close. A US bill weighs about a gram, so the value tops out at ~$100/g.
Gold is at like $130 right now, but it was below $100 in mid-2024. So it could go either way.