![941938F2-3C99-4A32-B3BF-8B97A0023314.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/dbooster/AK9NwG527JRa5BaYB4xzxYEpRvE3vZnoXcQFZW9mVrdi4wCP6E1CNzbgEXTCsi8.png)

Most of the time, fiat currencies work. I know, our collective opinion on Hive and in #silvergoldstackers is a bit more suspicious (to say the least) of fiat, but  facts are they do work—well, until they don’t.

The whole world runs on paper promises backed by nothing but trust. That trust usually holds… until one day it doesn’t. When that day comes, people don’t run to to the stock market. They don’t run to Bitcoin (as much as we might want to believe they would). They run to what’s always worked: silver and gold.

Let’s look at a few moments in history where fiat collapsed and precious metals became the only real money.

<center>![][divider]</center>

### 🇩🇪 Weimar Germany (1921–1923): A Wheelbarrow for Bread ###

This is everyone’s favorite example, but bare with me. The German mark collapsed after World War I, thanks to crushing reparations and unrestrained money printing. There was a lot of blame, much of it not from the German government and outside their control. Prices doubled daily. At its peak, you needed one trillion marks to buy what cost one mark before the war. Can you imagine? Now *that's* hyper-inflation. A wheelbarrow of cash would even be too little to buy a loaf of bread. 

But guess what still held value? Gold and silver coins. Many families who had a few old imperial coins stashed away survived. One gold 20-mark coin could buy a house in 1923. One silver coin could feed a family for a week. I don't know if stacking was a thing back then in the same way it is now, but anyone who had stacked a little was set. 

People sold heirlooms, jewelry, anything with real metal content. Fiat was wallpaper. Gold was survival.

<center>![][divider]</center>

### 🇦🇷 Argentina (1998–2002): Pegged to the Dollar, Then Pegged to Chaos ###

Argentina tried to fix its inflation by pegging the peso 1:1 to the U.S. dollar. It worked… until it didn’t. In theory, it was supposed to stabilize prices and rebuild trust. But in reality, it was a ticking time bomb. When government debt piled up and investor confidence collapsed, the peg broke. What followed was financial martial law: bank accounts were frozen, ATM withdrawals rationed, and foreign currency transactions banned. Ordinary people—the ones just trying to get by—were locked out of their own savings.

They called it *El Corralito*, "the little corral", but it felt more like a prison. Lines wrapped around banks. Protests erupted daily. People started banging pots and pans in the street—a sound now burned into the national memory.

In that mess, those who had stashed gold jewelry or U.S. silver coins quietly sold them on the street. It wasn’t fancy bullion—it was necklaces, rings, old quarters, anything with weight. Gold chains were cut and weighed on the spot. Silver was traded hand to hand. One Argentine told the story of buying a month’s worth of groceries with a silver bracelet he’d forgotten he even had.

Even barter came back—flour for soap, gasoline for diapers—but real metal always had a buyer. Gold and silver didn’t just preserve wealth—they bought time, food, and dignity.

And here’s the kicker: even as the Argentine peso spiraled and banks slammed shut, there was still a functioning parallel economy. It was smaller, riskier, and often illegal—but it ran on hard assets. And people who had metals, even a little, could still participate in that economy. Those without? They waited in bread lines and hoped.

The lesson is the same as always: when trust breaks, physical metals become liquidity, survival, and sometimes even power.

<center>![][divider]</center>

### 🇯🇵 Post-WWII Japan: Hyperinflation and the Rise of the Black Market ###

I've probably covered this example countless times on my blog. I have numerous coins from Japan's past and every time I post about them, I seem to mention the hyperinflation of the WWII era. 

After Japan’s defeat in WWII, the yen plummeted. Pre-war the yen was roughly equal to the US dollar, but post-war the yen was roughly equal to just a fraction of a US penny. The official economy collapsed, and most real commerce shifted to the black market.

In that underground economy, silver was king. U.S. occupation soldiers, flush with American silver coinage, bought whatever they wanted—food, clothes, favors. The Japanese government issued new paper yen, but no one wanted it. What people wanted was something real—and nothing was more real than silver.

<center>![][divider]</center>

### Metals as Exit, Not Just Hedge ###

We often hear that silver and gold are a “hedge against inflation.” But in these moments of collapse, they weren’t just a hedge. They were the only money that worked. When fiat died—briefly or permanently—gold and silver became the fallback system.

It’s easy to think that can’t happen today. But the point is, it already has. Many times. All around the world. Paper dies fast. Metal doesn’t. It's important to understand that point. Fiat *always* fails eventually. The game is making that eventually as far off as possible, but it will eventually come, and if we happen to be the unlucky ones who are around when it does happen, we better have some silver and gold around or we aren't going to enjoy the experience. 

Maybe that’s why I keep stacking; not really for profit—if I wanted profit I'd just buy BTC or an S&P index fund—but as a quiet insurance policy.

What about you? Do you stack for history? Or the future?

[divider]: https://images.hive.blog/0x0/https://images.ecency.com/DQmR3iwCn9yvwXDXfuNjmMX6FrjAvFfYQWgA4QRckpens1j/external_content.duckduckgo.png

<center><h1>❦</h1></center>
<table><tbody>
<tr>
<td><img src="http://68.media.tumblr.com/9ed59bcbc3d0c81b382b0df883f91773/tumblr_inline_ni2uuza1ku1qz4uph.jpg" alt="Hi there!"></td>
<td><a href="https://hive.blog/about/@dbooster/about-david-laspina-v1-2">David</a> is an American teacher and translator lost in Japan, trying to capture the beauty of this country one photo at a time and searching for the perfect haiku. He blogs here and at <a href="https://laspina.org">laspina.org</a>. Write him on <a href="https://famichiki.jp/@dbooster">Mastodon</a>.
<p></p>
<p><a href="https://thecrazygm.com/hivetools/utility/tipjar/steembasicincome/1/hive/dbooster">【Support @dbooster with Hive SBI】</a></p></td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>