Gold And Portability

Everyone has an angle.  The only people I can think of that are just working for the good of humanity are Isis, Hillary Clinton, The Tea Party Patriots and Martin Armstrong.  Apart from that, it's a safe bet that everyone is selling something.

I'm selling gold coins and medals.

But I'm also hoarding gold coins and medals.  And there are some very important reasons why, that many fail to consider.  They have to do with Aristotle's definition of money.

It is currently fashionable to say that anything can be money.  And it's true, anyone can define anything according to their own whims.  But for five thousand years gold was the primary form of money.  But only wealthy civilizations had gold.  When civilizations had no gold, they used silver.  When they had no silver they used Bronze.  Very poor civilizations used stones, beer, shells, livestock etc.  As soon as the acquired wealth they upgraded to precious metal.

In about 300 BCE Aristotle wondered what it is about Gold that makes it the perfect form of money?

He answered his own question thus:  Gold is Durable, portable, divisible, constant, and it has Intrinsic Value.

These are the characteristics that make Money not only Useful to Society, but Useful to Man as a Private Citizen.  Because to Aristotle, as an Athenian, it is only in service to Man As Private Citizen, that a thing attains it highest Virtue.

Money as it is used today, is not durable, constant and has no intrinsic value.  It needn't to serve Society which is to say Government.

To serve Government it need only be divisible and portable. 

Money's durability and constancy and value are based on Good Faith.  Trust in the issuer.  That is to say: Trust in Government. 

This is a tenuous thing.

Money's divisibility is nearly infinite.  This is its greatest strength.  This gives it its great Governmental Use-Value.  This gives rise to debt, leverage and actuarial projections.  The abuse of this infinite divisibility also gives rise to Current Money's greatest weakness: Infinite Debt, Infinite Leverage and Manipulated Projections.

But it is Money's Portability that is most useful remaining asset so far as the Private Citizen is concerned.  The Portability of Money is what gives the Citizen the ability to protect his Money from the Government.  It is Portability that affords the Citizen Privacy.  It is portability that gives the Citizen Autonomy.  One's Wealth, when portable, is one's personal business, to dispose of when, where and as one wishes.

And it it this Portability that is now under attack with the Government/Big Bank new War on Cash.  As we move to electronic money, every transaction will be monitored and taxed.  There will be no privacy.  And every form is wealth will be subject to confiscation.

And this is where attributes of TIME TESTED REAL MONEY - GOLD COINS AND MEDALS - will become proportionally more valuable.  Because Historically Important Gold Coins and Medals have both Intrinsic Value that is honored throughout the globe - and they are Absolutely Portable.  They can be hidden, transported and traded, in ways that the Government will never ever be able to account for.

Don't get me wrong.  I am in now way suggesting any type of Illegal Use of Real Historical Money.  I am only pointing out the obvious advantage of having Private Wealth in an age where Real Private Wealth is becoming increasingly under attack.

Real Money in the form of Gold Coins and Medals are also durable and constant.  They, in fact, have all the attributes so valued by Aristotle. 

But do not underestimate the Importance of Portability.  It may turn out to be the most important attribute of all.