I'm with you on this. If things turn completely to hell, we won't go to gold, we'll go to barter. The prime barter goods will be things that have intrinsic value: cigs, scotch, ammo, food, a warm place to sleep. You can't eat gold, nor will it be useful in fending off the bad guy who's climbing in your window to see what he can take from you.
Gold and silver will be used as the common medium of exchange in a barter system (Argentina). As far as the bad guy, just show him your latest mutual fund statement -- that will scare him away.
Richard W.
Not trying to run horsetrod through this thread, but during the 9 years I was in the numismatic business in a retail store I had many, many investors who were purchasing bags of U. S. silver coins (pre-1964) so that they could use the small silver coins (dimes for instance) to barter with (if they needed to). I believe back then - in early 1979, a U. S. silver dime (90% silver) was being traded for about 4 times face value. Hence...investing in U S silver coins by the bag or quarter bag of $1000 is also an inviting idea. In times of turmoil, one of these silver dimes could purchase a loaf of bread, three/four of them -a gallon of gasoline, etc, etc.