I think you should probably research that a little better.  If you see look on wiki[1] you can see a focus on gold held by governments.  The US for instance holds 8000 tons of gold.<p>However if you dig ;-) deeper you find out that a country like India is estimated to have 15,000+ tons [2] of gold held privately traditionally as jewelry.  This Indian form of savings is widespread and does contradict your statement regarding physical gold.  Other countries have similar although normally less savings held in this form.<p>[1] - <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Gold_reserve" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Gold_reserve</a>
[2] - <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;blogs.wsj.com&#x2F;indiarealtime&#x2F;2011&#x2F;07&#x2F;14&#x2F;indias-600-billion-hidden-treasure&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;blogs.wsj.com&#x2F;indiarealtime&#x2F;2011&#x2F;07&#x2F;14&#x2F;indias-600-bil...</a>