Do people in strife-torn countries use gold as currency?

[Johanna]

@DrDeth

Certainly not 24kt. Certainly more than the usual American 14kt, maybe 18kt. 24kt is very soft and no one wears it as jewelry. My Mom had a 20+kt bracelet (from the “old country”) and it was scratched and bent and warped. As a young child I could bend the gold in it with my bare hands. :eek:

But yes, Vietnamese and other nationalities wear a bit of their wealth in high carat gold.

I know lots of Indian and Pakistani women who will not even look at gold unless it’s 22kt. Maybe it’s an Asian thing.

[TheLoadedDog]

On other thing in Vietnam (no cite other than my own experience) is that on the black market, you will get a better exchange rate for your US dollars if the bills are of higher denomination and/or are relatively new and clean. This is because soiled notes can’t simply be returned to the bank easily, so if a note has a longer prospective lifespan in the Vietnamese cash economy, it is worth relatively more.

At least, that was the case in 1996. I didn’t notice it so much when I went back in 2000.

[Common_Tater]

Yes, I remember buying something from a street vendor in Phnomh Penh several years ago.
The bill had a corner or two that was folded, and the lady really didn’t want to take the bill. I was a bit incredulous but they take their cash very seriously.

[Teri_Motley]

Thanks for all the replies, folks. But I still haven’t seen a report of an actual use of gold to buy something. Which makes me more convinced that it is some kind of security blanket, or consensus delusion, giving the illusion of last-ditch safety, but actually is not useful at all.
If the fleeing Iraqis use the local currency in their country of refuge, what did they trade to get that currency?

@madmonk28

I have lived in these conflict/post-conflict societies

Kosovo
Afghanistan
Iraq
Philippines, Sulu Archipelago

And have also lived in Russia, Ukraine and Moldova when inflation was out of control in the 90s as well as travele throughout the developing world.

As other people mentioned people often use a foreign currency, often the dollar, but increasingly the Euro. A lot of times, people get paid in a local currency and immediately convert it to a hard currency before it devalues further. Sometimes there is a hard currency shortage and you walk around with huge wads of cash in your pocket. Here in Indonesia, I have around a million in 50,000 notes in a sweaty lump in my pocket as I type this. The bigger the purchase, the more likely it will be in a foreign hard currency.

In answer to the question of what the middle class use in Iraq: most of them use what ever the currency is in the country they fled to, or they are dead. Iraqis on the street use Iraqi notes which is somewhat stable right now, or dollars.

[Testy]

Teri

Apologies. In answer to your question, I have seen one transaction involving gold bullion. My wife bought some land in Thailand and paid for a portion of it with gold coins, chains, and other bits and chinks.

Regards

testy