Actually, there is a way to use precious metals (PMs) for routine every day purchases. A few years ago the GlintPay people in the UK extended their service to the USA, so you could use a Mastercard from them, backed by however much gold you might choose to purchase … that’s safely stored in a vault in Switzerland. Their US support office in Colorado told me this last summer that to set up an account them one needs either a smartphone or tablet that can run Android 6 (or newer). They also said they are working on developing some software compatible with a desktop computer. They have a few videos on YouTube under the channel name of Glint. Their website for the USA is

https://glintpay.com/us

I have two concerns with them. Mastercard in the USA sometimes turns political and prohibits a few types of purchases. Whether that could affect the Mastercard that UK business issues for use in the America is unclear. The other issue is the dependence on the power grids of which the US has three — eastern, western, and Texas. A power outage means no transactions until power is restored — just like charge cards already, or digital money on its way.

Historically having gold offshore has been a major benefit. In 1933 when FDR confiscated gold owned by Americans (which he immediately marked up for the government’s thieve’s profit) there were two types he didn’t touch: high value gold coins with numismatic value (owned by his high-dollar supporters) and gold owned in other countries over which he had zero jurisdiction under US law. Of course in 1933 there were no charge cards, no rural electrification, no digital money, and no blockchain technology. Today that’s all changed.

What has not changed is government’s hatred of competition to government theft of the money’s purchasing power by counterfeiting — which (prior to Lincoln’s unCivil tax war) had a death penalty from the 1792 US Coinage Act. Today the SEC is already trying to destroy multiple crypto currencies by enough oppressive regulation and/or court fights. A crypto user today needs to know how to set up a non-custodial wallet and which cryptos are compatible with the greatest of secrecy. And of course, the majority of people still don’t use, understand, or accept cryptos yet.

Benjamin Franklin wrote in his autobiography that the prime cause of the American Revolution was the British prohibition on the American colonies issuing their own money — which had been facilitating a booming economy. That was a threat to the 1690s-created Bank of England which had a monopoly on counterfeiting British money (often to steal purchasing power to fund foreign wars).

Today there are several videos on YouTube about how people survived hyperinflation in various foreign countries. They are worth watching. Today as rapidly as the Biden administration is promoting spending trillions of irresponsibly counterfeited money, our challenge is NOT how to save as much money as possible … but to convert as much as possible quickly into things, assets, skills, et al that can’t be counterfeited. It is instead how to conserve and grow as much PURCHASING POWER as possible before government steals all they can.

–Lewis