I summoned most of my savings and ordered a $20 gold piece in average uncirculated condition. I was greatly influenced by some of the articles I had read at the time about the “coming” liberalization of restrictions on gold ownership (didn’t happen until 1975) and didn’t want to miss the boat. It cost me $59.95 including postage.
Today, that coin is worth about $3200, so roughly 53 times what I paid in 1971–apparently just like a lot of other things. The argument is often made in some investment “newsletters” that it’s not gold that increased in value, it’s the dollar that decreased in value.
In days of greater idealism, I used to diss gold as an investment because you can’t eat it, you can’t live in it, you can’t drive it anywhere, and it pays neither interest nor dividends. However, I have to ask myself, what is there that you could buy in 1971 that will get you just as many hamburgers today as it did then? Certain collectibles, certainly—selected art, rare coins, a few stocks that are still around, but few things that are both accessible to (and affordable to, in 1971) the masses, of which I thought myself a charter member back then.
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