So, when society collapses, and some folks have a few small bars of gold stashed away in their basements, how will bartering with that bar of gold be accomplished?
I can imagine a gold coin will have some small nominal value, say $100-$200, but a solid bar of gold will be very hard to break apart. What's a poor boy to do? I certainly don't think it's a wise idea to trade a small bar of gold for a loaf of homemade bread. How will that transaction be completed?
Yea, I know some redneck gold hoarders will step in and roll their eyes at my question because they've already broken their bars down into something, but please tell me what that something is.
Thanks.
As suggested by the response you are replying to, a question like the following doesn't really have meaning as expressed:
If the world goes "tits up" your gold is more likely to get you killed than make you "rich", unless you can find someone to trade with that will build you walls and sell you guns. It's "value" will be worth whatever you can trade it for, to whoever will trade for it without killing you.
If the dollar collapses however, and we move peacefully into a new economic system, then and only then will gold be "revalued" as you mean it. It's new value will be based on supply and demand, just like a free market is intended to work.
We've never had a free market, we've never experienced one, and history doesn't really have any solid examples of any, so it's real value is difficult to determine. Historically an ounce of gold was worth in the ballpark of about $10,000 of today's buying power. That varied a fair bit, and there have been manipulations to the gold market (and it's use as money. i.e. coin shaving, etc.) since gold first began being used as an intermediary of exchange for barter, so it is really difficult to say where it will land, but all you really can say for certain, assuming no fuckery, is that gold will be worth whatever the supply is v. the demand of it.
If any other value comes out, then there is fuckery that will need to be dealt with, using the other best metal to invest in: Lead.