My thinking is if things are so bad that I need gold to buy something , then there will be no banks , shops , mail or any kind of delivery service for converting that gold into acceptable currency . Cranking up a vehicle and going somewhere to cash in gold might also be problematic as I have never seen a gas pump that took gold or anyone working inside a gas station dealing in gold . Trying to pay property taxes with gold I could also see being a problem . -- With that view , I will say however if someone expects things to crash and then spring back into some sort of recovery , then yes at that point converting that gold might be profitable . I just don't expect a recovery and am expecting our ongoing spiral downward to not bounce back , thus my efforts toward never ending self-sufficiency .