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I like yours but, the rule of thumb for gold I've heard is that from Roman time until today, a 1 oz gold coin is enough to buy a suit of clothes and a fancy dinner.


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the old maxim is that an ounce of gold would always buy a man a new suit, a meal, and a place to sleep for the night

Depends. Some gold seller used to advertise that in 1400 AD an ounce of gold would buy two good suits, and today it will buy about two good suits.

"...an ounce of gold would always buy a nice suit and a pair of shoes. That seems to hold true today."

Approximately $1.76 million

Starting in 1837, gold coins in the US had 0.48375oz of gold per $10. So $27,000 in coins would be worth $1,755,432 given a price for gold of $1344 per oz. This excludes the value of the copper with which the gold was alloyed, which would be worth roughly another $30.


Similarily, 30 ounces of gold could buy you a car (Ford Model T) in 1912, and can still buy you pretty nice car now (anything that costs ca 60,000 USD)

When I looked into this, the consensus seemed to be that the best form of gold, if you want to physically hold it yourself, is gold coins minted by reputable national mints. American Gold Eagles, South Africa Krugerrands, etc. These trade at close to spot.

And a 1 oz Krugerrand or Gold Eagle is about $20,000. If you can afford enough volume of those that it’s difficult to secure them, you can afford to secure them.


> Gold is a metal. It's not a currency. It's worth about $450 an ounce at the moment.

As of 10 minutes ago, gold is selling for over $1100 an ounce, so I'll gladly buy all that you're willing to sell me for $450 an ounce.


No. One gold coin bought a good suit of men's clothing in 1500 and will buy a good suit of men's clothing today. That's all you can do. Everything else went to seed.

Sure, except with gold, you could buy a nice suit and steak dinner in any era.

How much gold?

So how much is gold's commodity value really? I've heard $30/oz thrown around (no idea how accurate that is).

If that's true, 30/1600 is about 2%, yet gold is still perceived as a fairly safe store of value.


You can definitely buy gold coins. I have one in my desk drawer right now, even.

It's silver though, so only about $26k (of course that's the least accurate way to compare modern and ancient prices).

Gold wasn't that commonly used in the west back then.


It'd actually be an interesting experiment to see what you could buy with smaller-denomination gold coins. I would bet some number of independent businessmen (but not large chain stores) would be willing to accept, say, the 1/10-oz American Gold Eagle as equivalent to around $180.

Technically, I could still buy 16oz of gold and have a pound... So I officially declare all my metaphorical gold is measured in international avoirdupois ounces.

Which I learned about thanks to Wiki University.

Thanks.


Even the tiniest gold coin costs over $200. For bartering, silver, Mountain House, and ammunition make much more sense to hoard.

Let's say you've been buying gold since its been at $1300/oz (or even before that), at what point do you tell yourself the moment is right to start selling in order to buy things for cheap?

The point of gold is to have buying power in times where very few have any of it. So liquidate some gold and start buying healthy companies for the cheap.


Buy gold.

Buy gold.
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