Why Precious Metals? You Can't Eat Them...

Over on the TEOTWAWKI blog there is an interesting post that responds to the question, "When TEOTWAWKI hits, gold and silver will be nothing more than useless shiny metals--why would I want those instead of more beans, bullets and bandaids?"

In a nutshell, it is pointed out that a currency collapse is far more likely than an all-out-end-of-the-world, blasted back to the stone age scenario. In a currency collapse, where society is still pretty much functioning, your money is going to be worth a lot less and not have much purchasing power.  Precious metals are a way to guard against this.  Gold and silver have always been valuable, and always will be.

However, being able to use gold or silver to purchase what you need depends on having a functioning economy/society.  If that is not in place, it is true, they may not do you much good as they don't taste very good and do not have a lot of nutritional value. ;)  But, history has shown that, typically, currency/economic collapses are far more common than an all out, end of the world as we know it , societal collapse scenario.