I've only ever been stopped at an airport once where a labrador sat down next to me in a line. When asked, I confirmed I had around 5k in bank notes in my pocket which the dog picked up. They didn't bother to pull me aside to count it out.
On the other hand I had on a 1980s brown dial solid gold Rolex GMT Master II (sadly sold since) that would get me 10k easy in any pawn shop and a thick 14k necklace weighing 100+ grams that at the time with gold less than today's gold price would easily have got me 5k.
I also had a Leica camera and lens costing me over $10k AUD that I could have sold for around $3-4k anywhere if I had needed the money.
The $10k limit is only for cash, not gold or other "relics".
It's also per person so assuming you're travelling with someone else you can carry $20k etc.
