back when ships needed to carry vast amount of wealth, gold was preferable. the salt water wouldn't affect it, and if the ship sunk, you could retrieve it unless it was in the open ocean.

gold today is largely IOU's *stock* that can never be redeemed. a large part is fake gold. and the ones that actually hold real gold, will have the government confiscate it and make any transaction for goods illegal, in any bad scenario where gold would explode in value.

buy bitcoin.
easy to verify, transfer, divide and keep out of the hands of your malevolent government.