Gold. Is it any use?

[CharlesHarris]

Your situation in UK is quite different than ours in the US.

Having some gold is OK, but I would not put a deal deal of effort into doing so until I already had a year's supply of food put away, along with other important preps, such as heirloom seeds, gardening tools, medicines and supplies such as batteries, blankets, warm clothing, extra eyeglasses, sturdy boots, a well built off-road bicycle, etc., etc.

Like the man says, you cannot eat gold. If the smallest gold denomination you have is 1 oz., then that is whatever your car repair, etc. is going to cost.

Here in the US they issued silver coinage until 1964. Rural merchants here now will take pre-64 US silver coinage for its equivalent value based on the inflation calculator: http://www.usinflationcalculator.com/

For instance, an item purchased for $100 in 1964 today in current dollars would cost $753.37, for an inflation of 653.4% over that time.

So a pre-1964 silver 25 cent piece is currently woirth $1.88 and a silver 10 cent piece is 75 cents!

Haven't the foggiest idea how to reconcile new pence vs. old pence, but I'll wager a WW2 era solid Sovereign is mighty serious money!