True, although I suspect the amount of gold wearing off is a lesser concern than the very charitable people who would, sooner or later, save you the trouble of rolling it around any further by persuading you (perhaps with the assistance of firearms, baseball bats etc) to roll your coin into their truck so you didn't have to keep worrying about it.
Isn't that what silver coins are for? It seems much easier to use a 90% silver dollar or two, than to break bits of gold off a larger bit of gold and hope you broke it just so. Otherwise if you end up paying 1.25g of gold when you hoped for 1g of gold you just gave someone a 25% tip without even knowing it.
This is neither an endorsement, an advertisement, or an, um... admission. Hypothetically speaking, IF I were to buy (ahem) any gold.... looks like it is designed to break off into 1 gm piece. Think of it as a very rich Hershey bar... https://www.jmbullion.com/50-gram-valcambi-gold-combibar/
I think that, hypothetically speaking, if I were to buy gold with a forward view to when it might be used as currency, I'd want something where each individual piece was of assured quality. At current prices 1g of pure gold has a melt value somewhat over $50, which is still quite a large denomination for smaller purchases. For smaller transactions I think I'd go for silver coins (a 1oz silver eagle runs maybe $24-25 now), and look for pre-1964 silver coins for smaller transactions still. A silver dime is worth maybe $1.50 or so at the moment, so silver dimes and quarters would seem like a good choice for day-to-day transactions. So I'm told, anyway.
According to "One Second After," in a EOTWAWKI event like an EMP, the currency of choice is .22LR ammo. In which case, hypothetically, I would be a rich man!
I guess with that currency in abundance you can both pay people to help you and also pay people to stop approaching you.
LOL! That currency would be most valuable. To get things and to prevent things from being taken away. Provided the next person doesn't possess a bigger denomination of the same! Personally, if you are buying precious metals, just buy them for investment. You don't hoard them to use them as currency in case of an event unlikely to happen in your life time. And for Investment a piece, of 10g would be ideal. Procured with not so much large amount, easily disposed in time of need. If want to accumulate larger quantity then a combination of 10, 50, 100g can be accumulated as per convenience.
The whole "event unlikely to happen in your lifetime" is a matter of opinion, and many people out there disagree. Personally I'm surprised we haven't seen more substantial price inflation in recent years, although I have mixed views on whether we are likely to see a collapse of major world currencies any time soon. We have seen currencies collapse, bringing untold misery, many times around the world in the last 100 years or so and for that reason I wouldn't be too quick to say "can't happen here". For investment it seems to me the best options are the ones that give the maximum bang for your buck. If you're just wanting to keep somethine in secure storage and have the means and inclination to buy kilobars or even good delivery bars you might as well do that. If you're expecting to use something as currency and have at least half an eye on a possible currency collapse you need to approach things very differently.
The fuhrer changed the rules (again) recently and graciously allowed outdoor dining in counties in his yellow phase. The rule was effective yesterday so my wife and I, with a couple of friends, went to our favorite brewpub. I signed up for their membership deal which means I can book a table. It was good to be back there. I've seen several people online with a rather sneery attitude towards people (like me) who want things reopened, asking whether I'd be among the first in line to actually go to a reopened restaurant. My answer was always "You better believe I will be", and last night I was
Here in Florida we are entering Phase 2 opening. Restaurants can go to 50% capacity and bars and movie theaters and massage therapists can open.
Our fuhrer ruled that we aren't allowed to have haircuts but given he doesn't look like a caveman presumably he has been having his hair cut. He also ruled about social distancing, and then ignored his own rules when he joined a group larger than his own rules permitted and failed to maintain social distancing as he joined one of the protest marches. Apparently the deadly virus ceases to be deadly if you support a specific cause. It's just a shame that the cause of millions of freshly unemployed Americans wasn't considered important.
On the moving side of things. Did a quick and dirty "non installed field test" of the cell phone amplifier yesterday afternoon. Went from 1 bar and very poor signal quality to 5 bars and excellent quality with exterior antenna sitting on a box at ground level. Streamed Netflix like a dream through my phone as the hotspot. Look like commo will be good to go at the new command center once I get my hotspots.
My point is such events are very rare and probability of such events is so low you don't prepare/hoard for it. It's not like cyclone, floods that regularly happen. Such events are not likely to happen in everyone's lifetime.
You're still expressing a matter of opinion. People prepare for things they are concerned about. Some people (largely the younger generations) don't prepare for much of anything. Older people who lived through rationing and shortages are more likely to prepare to some extent for shortages. You can't just make a statement, as if it were indisputable fact, that "you don't prepare for it" when describing things that concern other people enough that they do prepare for it. The simple reality is that everybody should prepare for "it", the only question is the level of preparedness that people consider to be appropriate/affordable/practical etc. Some people I know will often have enough food in their basement to last them a year or more, as a matter of routine. Others do their grocery shopping two or three times a week and typically have next to nothing on hand. Personally I consider the latter approach foolish because if there ever is a shortage those people have absolutely nothing on hand, and a shortage could be due to anything from a full-scale disaster to a glitch in the supply chain. I don't see a lot of benefit in keeping enough food on hand to last for many many months, simply because a disaster that would require that level of preparation is likely to be the size of disaster that would cause rolling and possibly long term power outages, ruining the contents of freezers. It's also likely to be the size of disaster that would leave many people hungry and desperate, meaning you have to decide how generously to share your stash or how violently to defend it. As with most potential disasters it's better to be prepared a year ahead of time than a day behind time.
"you don't prepare for it" is just my opinion. I am of the opinion that we need to take into account cost benefit ratio when investing in anything. I will refrain from investing a sizable chunk of my net worth for a low probability situation. I would devote a very small percentage if at all. I will allocate higher percentage with higher the probability. Couldn't agree more.
Sure, it's silly to dedicate 90% of your resources to something you consider unlikely to happen, it's just a question of deciding how likely a risk event is and how many resources you are willing to sacrifice in the hope of preparing for it. For good measure different economic talking heads are calling for everything from a deflationary depression to hyperinflation, and preparing for both really does chew up resources. Even if you're willing to take the time to hunt pennies old enough to be pure copper the amount of space you need to accumulate enough of them to be a useful hedge against anything is substantial. The tricky part is thinking things through to logical conclusions. I've talked to people in the past who think they'll be OK because they filled the chest freezer with supplies, but when I asked what happens if the power goes out it was clear they hadn't really considered anything beyond "hoard". And of course if you were forced to flee your home you'd have to consider what you could take with you, especially if you ended up fleeing on foot. For me much of the concept of "being prepared" is little different to taking advantage of imbalances in supply and demand. In the summertime I can buy fresh produce at stupidly cheap prices because there's so much of it, while in the winter time the only options are the garbage offered by the chain stores that has been flown in from who-knows-where and tastes of nothing in particular. Simple concepts like canning means the benefit of locally grown fresh produce, paired with the incidental benefit of having at least some options on hand if the supply chain gets disrupted. It also provides cover for the entirely predictable event of there being snow and ice in the winter, and means I don't have to make so many trips in bad weather. If a serious disaster strikes the shelves in the grocery store are depleted for weeks at a time I'll probably get utterly sick of ever-decreasing portions of the same stuff as I try to eke out dwindling reserves but at least it provides a better option than being hungry by the end of day 2.