I've been at this for quite awhile. I buy decent quantities, but in small denomination for easier use. First, part of the problem is the vendors and the commodity players. The vendors upped their premiums from a few percent to 15-20% and more. Worse, if you look to buy privately on line you will see folks actually selling (not just asking) at near double spot.
The gold market has been over manipulated and folks have caught on. There is about 3 times more gold bought and sold than has been mined. Now everyone wants to have physical possession, hence the new premiums. Also, gold, traditionally an inflation hedge has been artificially held down to the point where it is way BEHIND inflation.
Now there is another biggie coming up. The U.S. threats to weaponize the dollar have made other countries nervous to the point where they are quietly pulling their money- previously kept here for safekeeping- out of the U.S. and converting it away from the dollar. If we liquidate billions in frozen Russian assets and sent it to Ukraine, other countries are worried that similar could happen to them. There is also a strong possibility that BRIC may usurp the dollar as the prime World Reserve Currency for just this reason.
The bottom line is that people are worried that the dollar's value may crash, since it's only backed by full faith in our government- which is starting to erode in regard to other countries. They want a backup currency- at least to get through transition, After that, who knows- barter? However, eventually we would have currency of some sort again for the same reason it was invented in the first place. It's easier to carry and use than a sack of flour. Centralized goods markets would return, and accept currency. How long would that take? No idea. The point is that gold and silver would probably be used in the first months of a dollar crash.
Oh yes. Silver. When working with silver one has to watch the gold to silver value ratio, and right now silver has a LOT of catching up to do, and I think we'll be seeing a very large jump in the next year or two no matter what. So much so that some of the big silver mining companies are actually holding on to their product instead of putting it out there.
