HJL,
I think Marks point was very Americanized and fits in with American beliefs that people have come to value dollars over gold and silver. If you look to people in other countries, you will see that silver and gold is considered and valued as money.
In Africa years ago people were panning for gold and bought bread with the small nuggets that they found. In Asia silver and gold are considered a valuable currency to use as a hedge and to keep your wealth.
In Europe with their history, it was considered a good thing to save silver and gold along with the local currency. My Italian step-mother years ago told me to always save real silver and gold that it could get you out of harm’s way, that you could bribe a guard to escape or buy food, or buy the last ticket of passage on a train or ferry or even pay your taxes when they came for your house after collapsing the currency. Her family knew of previous times when this has happened. Why do you think Hitler took all of the clothes from his prisoners?
Mark did say himself that people paid with their diamonds, silver, and gold for food from his relatives. There might have been a reason why those people were on the road that he doesn’t know about and away from their homes and food. – R.R.
HJL Adds: We also don’t recommend using precious stones. It’s difficult to know exactly what the value of a precious stone is worth, especially in a TEOTWAWKI situation. For instance, we know that diamonds are highly overvalued in today’s market, so you will probably loose value if you use them to store wealth. Even colored precious stones are difficult to trade with unless you have an “expert” on both sides of the transaction. PM’s are much simpler to deal with.