Absolutely. Invest in silver instead. It's prettier.
this post was submitted on 08 Dec 2025
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This is just me, and I'm no expert. But I kind of think that, if you're legitimately worried about your country's currency collapsing, you might want to consider leaving your country. Any sort of collapse that leads to hyperinflation or the large-scale elimination of financial infrastructure is probably going to be difficult if not impossible for the average person to survive, gold or no.
That said, precious metals are a niche enough market that I can't imagine it not being rife with predatory sellers; companies that aren't offering scams per se—you'll probably pay them and receive what you pay for—but companies which are counting on people not knowing anything about the market and accepting a terrible price or poor quality goods.
Again, not an expert. But my end-of-the-world investment would be in shelf-stable food, easily-stored seeds (for planting), medicine, hand tools, high-quality camping gear, books, that sort of thing. If there is a collapse, those sorts of things will be immediately useful and also tradeable.
Anyone who buys gold online should have a tester, and there are reputable bullion companies like JM who don't charge a lot of markup. If you're on ebay trying to buy gold bullion there's a chance it's probably fake / silver wrapped with gold and stamped. There's videos on the internet of folks cutting those bars in half and seeing what's inside.
A way to increase your chances of buying real product is to buy coins that are in bad enough shape where there's no numismatic value left. Whereas every country that mints coins has strict laws against counterfeiting them and you can go to prison for doing it, making "novelty" gold bars and rounds is perfectly legal and there's almost no risk if you get caught scamming people with them (most often just a platform ban).
At the moment unless you have some really rare stuff the numismatic value is generally less than the gold itself, I know for sure at least with standard "Napoleon" coins that is the case.
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Generally speaking, precious metal commodities are a hedge investment; they aren't a primary investment themselves, but they're a hedge against a loss in value of other investments, like stocks or bonds. If you are investing in gold as a hedge against inflation wiping out stock market gains, then yeah, it's pretty solid. You probably don't want to hold on to it forever though; if you'd bought gold just prior to Carter taking office and the stagflation of the late 70s, you be pretty much break-even with things like index funds.
As far as total societal collapse, you would need to have the physical bullion, not just have precious metals in your investment portfolio. And even then, gold might not have a ton of value in a subsistence society. People might trade for it, but if I had food to trade, I don't think I'd be trading for gold, since I can't eat gold. The people that will clean up in a subsistence environment? The Amish.
The thing about gold is they are always mining more of it, not great for long term value
There isnt much actually left and it becomes more and more expensive to mine.
Not that I agree with the specific numbers in this infographic (I have seen estimates between 20-40% remaining) but it illustrates my point. The right cube would be bigger, but not as big as the already mined cube on the left if you included all the gold estimates in total.
. It largely depends on how they are investing in it. Gold is a commodity just like lumber, gas, cotton, or livestock. You can invest in them like you would a stock or a mutual fund. Just like those other investments, the price will change daily based on the market. Gold is a weird one because everyone knows it was valuable historically and many people have physical versions of it. People use gold in their investment portfolios to hedge against some of their risk because typically the value of gold would go up when stocks would go down but our money was also tied to gold 50+years ago. The physical versions will change price too but they change differently.
- Gold coins? Unless they’re old or rare, they’re only worth the face value.
- Gold jewelry? It has value if it’s solid and not plated and then you need to get it appraised to know a fair value.
- Bullion? Probably the best form to have it in because that’s what countries and people that want to transfer physical gold will use.
In the event of total societal collapse, gold won’t matter other than it’s a shiny metal. They are better off investing in something more useful like the lumber.
As a finical instrument for investing it's fine. Makes total sense to have some of your money in gold.
As you describe, being a part of a prepping plan for the end of the world. It's really dumb, and a total scam.
I don't think society across the whole planet will collapse, short of a nuclear war in which case gold won't help one bit
Much more likely that certain areas will experience famine, war, disease, and reduced access to medicine.
Really the best bet is to be able to be mobile if an area has a significant decline you can move to where it's better