"...(do) you think anyone but dumb consumers pays full price for this..." No, I don't, and that's why the big, smart money has been buying like crazy at a discount over the past several years while the dollar is still the reserve currency.  You'll realize the flaws in your logic when your dollars are worthless and there isn't a gold or silver coin available for purchase using any quantity of dollars.  History is repeating itself. Here's what happened about 100 years ago --> https://mises.org/library/economics-inflation-study-currency-depreciation-post-war-germany   The book is free.  If you swapped out a few names of people and countries and used a few modern characters and companies, the pre-hyperinflation history in this book is eerily similar to what's been going on lately in the US and abroad.  And despite the propaganda suggesting otherwise, China is in even worse trouble than the US. The problem is global.  We'll be lucky to escape this without some really ugly stuff happening first.                  2ffa