# Yet another digresion about precious metals as currency

**URL:** <https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/yet-another-digresion-about-precious-metals-as-currency/23446>\
**Category:** The Drawing Board\
**Created:** [April 28, 2020, 1:52pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/yet-another-digresion-about-precious-metals-as-currency/23446 "2020-04-28T13:52:55Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 23

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**Author:** ![Valase](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/valase/32/6972_2.png) [@Valase](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Valase)\
**Post date:** [April 28, 2020, 6:31pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/yet-another-digresion-about-precious-metals-as-currency/23446/23 "2020-04-28T18:31:23Z")

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> [@The post-apocalyptic economy is kinda borked](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/the-post-apocalyptic-economy-is-kinda-borked/23440/20):
>
> gold unlke most metals is also not magnetic[…]

The same as lead ([Lead(II) iodide](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead(II)_iodide) is golden), Pyrite (well, with a strong enough magnet and/or enough knowledge, you might be able to see its paramagnetism - but not in small enough quantities), brass and bronze, tungsten, …

> [@The post-apocalyptic economy is kinda borked](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/the-post-apocalyptic-economy-is-kinda-borked/23440/20):
>
> you can drag it accros a unglazed ceramic plate to see if there is a gold mark on it.

This does not help if you have a bar whith a thin gold coating on it.

> [@The post-apocalyptic economy is kinda borked](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/the-post-apocalyptic-economy-is-kinda-borked/23440/20):
>
> you can test the density with a scale and a graduated cylinder to determine the [volume].

That’s the problem with tungsten: It has almost the same (and I mean it: it’s really, really close) density as gold. You can read up on a lot of cases where tungsten bars where layered with a thin gold coat or gold bars filled with tungsten to trick other people, sometimes even including banks and treasuries (although not anymore, since this method was discovered).

> [@The post-apocalyptic economy is kinda borked](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/the-post-apocalyptic-economy-is-kinda-borked/23440/20):
>
> > [@Valase](#):
> >
> > That’s… not how currency works. It has to be assigned a value and there has to be some consensus about it.
> 
> That consensus is already present precataclysm […] noble metals are seen as having innate value […]

> [@The post-apocalyptic economy is kinda borked](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/the-post-apocalyptic-economy-is-kinda-borked/23440/20):
>
> Everyone from before the cataclysm would have learned that gold would be valueable this is something that everybody believes […]

… And that’s the problem. You take a look at it from now, where you **know** it has value. Like… current currency. You even stated that the dollar would lose its worth because the “assigned” value is gone, but the gold would keep its value (or at least some of it) because people now know that it has value - well, we also know now that money has value; why does it lose it then but gold doesn’t?

> [@The post-apocalyptic economy is kinda borked](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/the-post-apocalyptic-economy-is-kinda-borked/23440/20):
>
> gold is still pretty rare both in real live (you could fit all the gold above ground in a cube 20,7m on each side) in game the quantities you would and do get from looting are very small and gold and silver are still far rarer than other things like ammo, guns, drugs or food but not so rare that they couldn’t be used as a regular medium of trade like purifier.

A gold cube messuring 8’869.743 m³ would have a weight of 171’363,43476 metric tons. Assuming a population of, let’s say… 8 billion humans and 0.1% survivors, there would be 21,4 kg of now useless gold for anyone (well, more for raiders and less for people bunkering down, i guess). Are you sure this is what you call “rare”?  
The other less rare things you named can all be used if you come into a place where you need to.  
If the cataclysm just struck and there are living (haha, well, that’s debatable) monsters just roam the street I wouldn’t weigh myself down by carring gold…

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