Most Americans have never held a gold coin in their hand. That’s right – a metal that was used as currency just 80 years ago has become foreign to us.
Sure, you’ll say, you’re familiar with gold jewelry. Most jewelry is 10 or 14 karat though – a far cry from the 22-24k used for gold coinage. The feel, the weight, the majesty… it’s completely different.
Go to a coin shop
Though you may feel out of place, I urge you to visit a coin shop if you’ve never been. First ask to see a 1oz silver coin – perhaps a Silver American Eagle. The heft, the weight, the substantialness of the coin will likely shock you. It’ll be clear why silver has been used as money for thousands of years.
Next, ask to see a one ounce gold coin. Skip the plastic-encased nonsense and get a bare coin in your hand. Though a one ounce Gold American Eagle weighs exactly the same as a Silver Eagle, it is much smaller. It’s more dense. It feels… Heavier. More expensive, drastically so. Holding the little piece of yellow metal in your hand makes you feel smarter, somehow.
Unless you’re superhuman, you’re likely to be intoxicated by the feel of this alien yellow metal. You feel powerful holding it – realizing you’re holding over fourteen hundred dollars worth of money in your hand. Real money, not the ghost of money (as Thomas Jefferson once called paper money.)
Most of us never get to use real money in day to day transactions these days. At best we use paper, at worst we use plastic. Holding real money, the money of central banks, the money of kings… that’s a powerful thing. If you’ve never done it, you need to.
