Aye. Therein lies the rub.
I am in no position to convert dollars to gold at this time. But if things fall apart as I see it coming, the dollars will be useless and anything not in your hands will evaporate. I hope we have a period of deflation before the dollar loses its reserve status. Then cash will be king and conversion would be feasible. For a very short time.
Cash will not be useless in the beginnings of the collapse,
and perhaps not worthless later either.
Greenbacks will be worth a lot more than entries in an electronic ledger, to be sure.