Gold has been highly valued for thousands of years. Gold coins *are*
attractive in a barter-based economy.

There's no disputing that has been the history of gold. But I think it will
be a much different situation for gold if a complete economic meltdown
happens in the future. If we are reduced to foraging for the bare
necessities of survival, I believe gold will be way down the list of prized
possessions. Of course I'm speaking of an extreme situation, but it is not
unthinkable. In an oil-based economy, when oil availability becomes truly
insufficient to meet life's daily needs, very ugly things will happen.
Hyper-inflation will be one effect. Not unlike Germany saw in the early
thirties. And we know where that lead.

The truly scary thing about this doomsday scenario as opposed to historical
major economic crises, is that the world today is so much more dependent on
oil for all the goods and services the world relies on. Even in the worst
historical economic meltdowns, the raw materials needed to pull ourselves
out of the dive were plentiful. In today's world, when oil becomes scarce,
everything becomes scarce. And that's when the scenario of street anarchy
becomes a reality. It scares the bejeezus out of me. All that each of us
has worked a lifetime for will become for the most part, meaningless.
Imagine the ugliness of life in New Orleans in the immediate aftermath of
Katrina as a normal way of life with no end in sight. What do you suppose a
gold chain was worth on the streets of NO during the first week after
Katrina? Or a gold coin, if you could find anybody who owned one? I'm
guessing either was worth much less than a bag of ice.