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Comment by whatshisface | Hacker News Reader

Expecting that you'll be able to trade gold for food is assuming that the state after the collapse will fall into a very narrow band of "collapsed enough that the financial system is gone" and "not so collapsed that the food supply is gone." You might even call it... the Goldilocks zone. ;)

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Why wouldn't you plan for that? The only plan you'd need for the total collapse situation is to have a revolver to eat a lead sandwich with.

I guess total collapse is something I don’t particularly worry about, since I won’t be here to worry.

I think partial collapse is more likely scenario (of the two).

I would assume a Venezuela-like collapse would be what you're thinking? Would gold help much in that case? (Honestly don't know, probably depends if the person you're trying to trade the gold to believes it will be easy for them to trade the gold to someone else when the time comes)

Can't really speak for Venezuela but lets say if currently 1 oz of gold is as valuable as a Macbook worth ~$1800 and in a hyperinflation event a Macbook costs $200,000,000 perhaps 1 oz of gold could be worth a Macbook? You would then just trade your coin for $200,000,000 and buy the Macbook. Obviously a massively simplified scenario. Perhaps there are sources out there on how people have dealt with hyperinflation?

And for that matter, assumes you will be able to find safe places to trade gold for anything. Unless we go back to a gold-rush style economy where there are scales all over the place you can trade gold by the gram, the smallest tradeable gold will be coins which are worth $1600+ each. Try taking that to the local grocery store.

Half Sovereigns are ~$300

https://www.atsbullion.com/gold-half-sovereign-coins/

Also many people who "invest" in physical bullion also invest in things like silver. A 1 oz silver eagle is basically a $20 bill. Gold can be traded down to silver if the economy is in that state.

There's also 1/10 ounce coins and other things.

>the smallest tradeable gold will be coins which are worth $1600+ each

Not really accurate, you can get rounds down to 1/10 oz which are worth ~$200. In any case the USD value of a gold coin in a collapse situation is obviously irrelevant. If fiat really does collapse barter is obviously going to be the default way to trade goods and gold could easily be used as it was in the past.

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