I'm just a novice on this, no expert. I've bought some metals from a local coin dealer. As long as there isn't total chaos, one could simply sell the gold at the counter of the coin dealer at the going spot rate. So if you bought gold at $1800, and the going rate becomes $3000 then that's what you get.
What concerns me is that the ratio between gold and silver is huge right now. Something like 43 to 1, traditionally 16 to 1 for thousands of years. Silver is overdue to go way up. And silver is easier to trade (but harder to carry - a little gold is worth a lot).
As long as there isn’t total chaos, one could simply sell the gold at the counter of the coin dealer at the going spot rate. So if you bought gold at $1800, and the going rate becomes $3000 then that’s what you get.
In total chaos, you’ll still be able to sell your gold on the black market for the monopoly dollars you’ll need for purchases, but the transaction fee will be confiscatory, and the people you’ll deal with will be...well, let’s just say you will take some friends with you when you go to make these transactions.
If you want to know how this really works out in practice, read this first-hand survival account from a guy who lived thought the 2001 Argentina collapse:
By the way, he recommends gold chains (jewelry), as that way you can sell a few links of what you really need, and not have to sell a coin which gives you a boat-load of cash you either use immediately or lose as hyperinflation eats away your purchasing power by the hour.
>> “What concerns me is that the ratio between gold and silver is huge right now. Something like 43 to 1, traditionally 16 to 1 for thousands of years. Silver is overdue to go way up.” <<
.
That is a gross misconception!
Silver has lost considerable real value due to the conversion of photography to digital. This accounts for over half of the silver that was once used. Silver will never recover its historic position.
I bought gold in 1992 from a nationally-known gold dealer. But that company, as huge as it is, doesn't have in its employ one author of literature instructing its buyers as to . . .
How to survive on that gold "as a hedge against inflation" (one of the favorite expressions), when the dollar has been inflated into value-lessness.