Gold Coins aren't treated as money for the purpose of sale. They are actually treated as collectors items. That means that sales tax applies.
Just as I advise against Gold Certificates, shares in Gold Plans, shares in Gold Mines, etc - I also advise against Gold Bullion.
Basically, the ownership of Gold Coins is so that you have something that is recognized as money to use to purchase what you need in the early part of a major disaster and major collapse of the monetary system.
Gold Coinage and Gold Bullion will always cost you more than their redeemable value to purchase. Cold Coinage is always a legal tender of the issuing government and therefore IS money. Gold Bullion is subject to valuation and a buyer would want to be assured of it's quantity and purity. Therefore, you can't easily convert Gold Bullion into money when needed and may not find anyone willing to accept it in payment for what you need.
It would be foolish to own more Gold Coinage than would be necessary to enable you to purchase what you need during the first year of a major disaster. Remember, the American government made ownership of ALL Gold illegal the last time there was a major financial disaster. That's what the movie Goldfinger is all about. That is why the Americans could peg Gold at 35 dollars an ounce until 1968. Nixon didn't get rid of the Gold Standard in 1968 to help out the Mining Industry. He got rid of the Gold Standard so that he could inflate the American Dollar and pay cents on the dollar for the Vietnam War debt. That is what is happening right now. The Americans once more have a war debt and also a debt for all of their social spending and flat out boondoggles. They are going to pay that debt with inflated currency. They will also return to a Gold Standard. When they do that, they will make ownership of Gold illegal and peg Gold at whatever value serves their purposes.
What we all have to do is survive the period of time between now, and when they impose a Gold Standard.
What people like to forget is that this game has been played out in the past and that people that know history can predict fairly accurately what is going to happen.
While Canada has a robust Banking System due to our requirements for banking liquidity, we still peg our dollar on it's relationship to the American Dollar. There isn't an alternative since all other global currencies are also pegged on the American Dollar and the American consumer market will be run for the benefit of Americans and not for the benefit of the Global Economy.
We are going to suffer deflation in direct relationship to the inflation of the American Dollar.
On your question about storage food, the big companies are mostly run by Mormons. That's because a tenant of their religion is the storage of a year's worth of food.
http://www.mountainhouse.com/
http://www.theepicenter.com/
All of the long storage food is pretty boring to eat and it's an effort to keep it in your diet so that you can keep your supply fresh. There isn't much that has a shelf life much past 18 months - 2 years. So, you have to consume it and keep purchasing more.
Yes, there is a reason that most of us don't do this stuff.
Avoid buying MREs. Meals Ready to Eat that are on the market are MREs that had already been delivered to the American Military, reached the end of their shelf life and sold at auction to the people who are selling them to you.
Remember, the Americans are at war and the military gets all of the fresh MREs.
