Rechtub said;
The US can always say, we will pay you 60% of the debt, in gold as
full settlement. What then!

Except as we were discussing elsewhere, what if the US no longer has
the gold ?
There is a suspicion that the US Treasury no longer has the stock of
gold as reputed to be in Fort Knox.
Why else was Germany refused access to do a physical audit of its gold ?
Very recently Austria has asked the Bank of England to allow access so
it can do an audit on its gold.
It will be interesting to see the reply.

579 said;
Paper money is worth what is printed on the note.

Until someone says "No its not !"

< Paper money is worth what is printed on the note. >

What a stupid comment!

Can someone please hand me a 100 trillion dollar Zimbabwe note then, I'm feeling a little short at the moment.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Zimbabwe_$100_trillion_2009_Obverse.jpg

Gold has been a universal store of wealth for thousands of years and probably will be for thousands more. If you ever need to cash some in, any Indian will buy it off you with pleasure!

And if you really feel it's worth nothing, then I'll happily give you that Zimbabwe note for all the gold you have; after all, paper money is worth the number that's printed on it!

That 100 trillion zimbabwe note, is worth 10 c au, so try all you like to see if you can get an exchange for some gold.
The 100 trillion is only any good in zimbabwe.

As i said paper money is as good as what is printed on it. We have no control over exchange rates. That is left to market forces.

Hey Bazz If you had a stack of $2 notes and you wanted to sell them for $1.50 ea I bet you would get a byer.
Tell me why people would be happy to give you your price for the notes.

As I have pointed out Gold is a store of value. All fiat currencies in the world have been eventually inflated away. Gold has always kept its value for thousands of years and has always been regarded as money. Paper currency has a counterparty risk. In other words someone (Government) has to be prepared to exchange it and demand taxes for value. This value has been dropping and dropping over many years and has always had a relationship with gold.

If you buried $10,000 in paper currency and the equivalent value in physical gold and dug it up in 100 years, how much do you think the paper would be worth and what it would buy compared to the gold ? That's why you don't park your paper under your mattress because it loses it's value. Everyone in the world regards gold as money and it is accepted everywhere in payment of debt. Paper currency is not, and is only backed by individual governments who have the ability to print it and thus inflate it. Even the Roman government did it by substituting gold for an alloy and why the origin of milled edges on coins could be seen if people were scraping the gold off. Coins containing gold and silver held intrinsic value at one time because they held valuable metal.

Watch what will happen when populations lose their confidence and trust in governments and their paper. They turn to something of value.
Not only bullion but physical things of value. Gold is preferred because it is fungible.