Interesting question robmalis. I'm not a card carrying member of...

Interesting question robmalis.

I'm not a card carrying member of the precious metals club and I am not really convinced that we are going to see a mass movement away from fiat currency and into gold and silver (although I am an optimist regarding silver for other reasons).

However, I would concede that there is one thing that could quite plausibly cause a stampede into the precious metals: A coordinated worldwide cyber attack directed at the online banking system.

In such a crisis situation, you would typically expect gold to benefit more for (as you say) it is more fungible.

However, you also have to account for differences between the 1920s and the 21st century. In the '20s motor vehicles were state of the art technology and only a small minority of people in Europe owned a car. So if you wanted to move your valuables from point A to point B, most people had to pack their bags and leg it for much of the way. By contrast, in the western world today pretty much anyone who wants a motor vehicle has one.

My point here is that thanks to the proliferation of motor vehicles over the decades, the portability of gold may not be such an advantage today as it was a century ago. These days anyone with access to a motor vehicle can transport several kilos of silver as easily as 100 grams of gold.

In short, if there was another crisis, I doubt you would see the 160 gold: silver ratio as in Germany of 1923.