“Sorry, but nobody has given me any gold for my farm goods lately, so I don’t have any to give back for your change, and I have no need for it anyway.”
The original “intrinsic” value of gold was its decorative value and the associated prestige. If savage communities have enough prosperity to barter for “decorative” items, gold will be coveted.
Do you need your stall(s) mucked out? How about a hair cut? Walls painted? Hole dug? Hide tanned?
The real problem with the barter system is that many transactions cannot be in trade. You have eggs and vegetables and I can teach you kids. But you don’t have kids - Jim-Bob does and can repair your tractor. Imagine how difficult negotiating the trades would be. Now imagine a town of 500 people. If only there were a medium of exchange we could use that would simplify the process…
Maybe I can pre-purchase a dozen eggs a week from you for some period of time, under a contract. Maybe I have some smaller coins. Maybe I have some silver coins (e.g. pre-1965 US quarters and dimes are 90% silver) that you would be interested in.
You seem to be suggesting that it’s straight barter-in-the-moment or else a full-fledged currency economy, with nothing in between.
I can think of a bunch of things it would be better to stock up on for end of the world survival rather than gold. Bottles of alcohol, containers of fuel, metal tools, nails, canning & pickling supplies, spices, medicines, etc. I can’t imagine trying to hoard anything that wasn’t useful in some way.
Besides, everyone knows that bottlecaps will be the money standard after the big one.
I’m stockpiling gold so that if the stuff hits the fan, I can make my own Goldschlager.
Twist-offs or pop-offs?
I’m not sure how “the end of the world” plays out, but you may find yourself fleeing forever from radioactivity or a band of butchers or something, with only foot transport. Will it be covenient to carry all your alcohol (a case of Jack Daniels? 
), tools, fuels, etc.? Might it not be more convenient to carry something with a high value-to-bulk and value-to-weight ratio for future bartering?
Toilet paper, facial tissue, feminine hygiene products, and paper towels would probably all command a fairly high price for as long as they were available.
Toilet paper will be priceless if coffeespouse has anything to say about it. That and diet cola.
But why hoard gold now? If the world collapses and I survive, I’ll just smash open a few jewelry stores and take what I need.
Some of those things will retain trade value. Toilet paper is much more desirable to people who have flush toilets than to those who are crapping in holes in the ground. Alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, and other recreational drugs will almost certainly retain value. Tobacco less so here in the US than in previous decades, but I expect you wouldn’t have any trouble finding people who would take it in trade.
In that case any hoarding at all would be a waste of time and effort. If I knew I wouldn’t be able to stay in one place for long then I think medical supplies like anti-bacterial cream, bandages, anti-diarrhea pills, pain killers, etc would be much better to drag along then any amount of gold.
Exactly. What would you rather have in the wilderness, a gold coin or a good roll of toilet paper?
People who think gold won’t be useful seem to think that there’s going to be some all-of-a-sudden catastrophe that ends civilization as we know it. Day 1, normal conditions. Day 2, fighting over the last few cans of foods with small arms.
That’s not very likely. If you look at past civilizations that collapsed, and recent governments that have collapsed, it’s not an overnight event, it’s a long slow slide. And it’s often at least somewhat localized (meaning that things like gold
Even in the event of nuclear war or a massive pandemic, there are probably going to be partially functioning markets and government agencies. And at some point you will likely have the chance to exchange gold for food or chickens or bullets. Or if you’re a hardcore survivalist, you already have those things, and the gold is for things that you haven’t thought of. Maybe you need to bribe your way out of a quarantine zone, or buy some extra duct tape and plastic sheeting after the local Home Depot gets cleared out by marauders.
If you have gold while the world is busy collapsing, you may be more likely to survive.
Actually, most silver coins are traded at their melt value, no matter what their condition is. A silver coin has to have impressive collector value to trade above melt price. It’s easy to buy rolls of pre-1964 quarters, for instance.
Dad did us a solid pulling those out of his pocket change for years. The big boxes of freeze dried food (each box designed to feed one person for one year), bought in 1972 - - not so much. They sold in 2012* for $25 each and I’m pretty sure the shipping alone cost that.
- I felt guilty when my son told me he’d sold them instead of dumping them. But he said he’d disclosed how old they were, so I don’t feel too guilty. With luck, they’re just being stored as an item of comfort and will never be opened.
The gold coin, I can barter it for something if I ever get out of the wilderness. Humans have survived without toilet paper for longer than they have survived with it. Sure it’s nice, but I’ve been camping enough to know there are other alternatives that aren’t that bad.
That would be about the right price.
But let us take a bit further. You have many Oz of Gold. I have a gun. You want to trade gold for gun. I end up with both.
Even in the case of a “simple” economic collapse, guns and canned goods are a better investment.
Like… ammo?