Wealth in a crisis is usable commodity-based, but, as I said, gold has some intrinsic value but it is limited.
Wealth in a crisis is guns, land, food, fuel/energy, means of transportation, means of heavy labor.
Now, what do we define as a crisis is the real question. There are some crises in which gold would have trading value, but there are others in which a person must preserve his/her own life and that of loved ones.
In that latter crisis, gold has little value.
Also, as wmfights pointed out, physical gold in quantity is owned by big players. To buy a Maple Leaf, for example, requires one hundred bucks over market price of gold. That's just about 1600 bucks.
The price alone guarantees that large buyers will be the bulk of that market.
And then we're talking another fee to convert back to usable currency.
I said “once you have food, shelter, bullets, etc., then I assume you want to preserve your wealth” and you said that in a crisis you have to first provide guns, land, food, etc.
Jeesh! did you think I was saying something else?
Further, you don’t have to pay $100 over spot for Maples
http://www.apmex.com/Category/21/Canadian_Gold_Maple_Leafs_2011__Prior.aspx
and Apmex is not the cheapest by far. If gold is too expensive, buy silver. Many people are and they are not “large buyers”