yes I have to agree with scottj about where the examples went wrong.
for my money - if one is to own physical gold - I strongly feel that it should stay very firmly in one's own possession - to me it completely defeats the purpose to have it stored in someone else's safe or stored as a bit of paper.
Like I say, i treat it as an insurance - a store of wealth that is probably as safe as you can get.
I hear the arguments about it being a useless commodity - I know Warren Buffet thinks that as well - but my feeling is this --
I am absolutely NOT going to argue with thousands of years of history -- gold has been owned and carried by people for a long long time - far longer than home ownership has been fashionable. It is the only store of wealth that I would carry with confidence if I were teleported back or forward a few hundred years - I would be pretty confident that I could buy a sausage at the other end if I had a bit of gold with me.
A history lesson is well learnt by studying antiques - see how far back bits of furniture go - not far at all - why?
Because people carried their wealth in trunks - and you can't fit a lounge suite in a trunk, nor can you fit a house.
When the barbarians come over the hill you need to be able to pack your valuable possesions and run like hell - or have a hidden stash in the ground to come back to - that is the way of history and I am not silly enough to think that things have changed all that much.
Did you notice that one of the very very few things that survived completely intact after the 9/11 attack was a safe full of bullion - all else was destroyed or damaged beyond use -THAT should be a lesson to all who are open to listen.
The are only 2 problems I have ever seen with holding physical gold - 1. if anyone else knows where you store it - it is a risk (never ever tell your kids, until they are grown up - and even then only if you really really trust them). - 2. Dementia - it is a bugger if you forget where it is - but that being said, if one has dementia to that advanced stage - I guess it doesn't matter anyway.