Dylan Tinklenberg readily admits that some would consider him to be a “prepper” for the end times. Like many of his customers at Idaho Pawn and Gold in Meridian, Montana, he doesn’t trust the banks — and he invests in gold as a “backup asset” in case “something were to happen.”

“I’m not, like, zombie apocalypse, full-out,” said Tinklenberg, the store’s general manager. But “I believe in some things.” He didn’t elaborate on what those things were.

If the dollar crashes, and banks close their doors, Tinklenberg believes gold and silver would likely become the new standard currency, he told the Idaho Statesman.

“With that 1-ounce silver coin, you could still get gas, you could still get bread,” he said.

Most gold investors have thought about such apocalyptic scenarios, Tinklenberg told the Statesman. He estimated that over half of the customers he sees investing in gold are preparing for some kind of societal collapse. He recalled one conversation with a customer who planned to store his gold in a bank safety-deposit box. But banks would be the first places to close their doors in an economic crisis, Tinklenberg said. He advised that customer to bury his gold instead.

In recent months, interest in precious metals has only spiked, Tinklenberg said. In October, his store bought nearly $2 million in gold, nearly double its usual monthly rate.

“It’s like, as I buy this (gold) from a customer, 20 minutes later, a guy will come in and ask, ‘Hey, you got an ounce of gold?’” he added. “It’s just constantly changing hands.”

What’s behind the rising demand? Analysts and industry observers attributed it to the shaky economy: high unemployment and a weakening dollar. Recent jobs reports have shown a decline in hiring amid President Donald Trump’s mass deportations of undocumented people, which have made it harder for some businesses to find workers, and his tariffs on goods from other countries, which have driven up prices. The administration’s frequently changing policies have also contributed to uncertainty in businesses’ hiring and investment decisions, analysts said.

There’s little data on who invests in gold — and many of those investors prefer to keep their decision private, experts said. But based on Google search trends, Mountain West residents have long shown a much higher interest in investing in gold compared with other Americans, a gold dealer found.

Many of Tinklenberg’s customers are older farmers whose parents lived through the Great Depression. Those who have lived through bank crashes or government collapses, he said, often see gold as a safe asset.

Increasingly, they find themselves in good company. The global price of gold in recent months has jumped, with its price in October rising above $4,000 per ounce for the first time, in large part because of banks jumping on board, The New York Times reported.

“Banks are on a scramble right now to buy as much physical as possible,” Tinklenberg said.

Interest in gold often spikes during times of economic uncertainty as a “hedging strategy” against inflation, said Rafael Ribas, a professor of economics at Boise State University. Given the limited supply of gold — unlike paper money, which can be printed — its value is more consistent over time, he said.

But Idaho has long had an independent, anti-government streak, in part stemming from its mining connections, said Justin Vipperman, a history professor at the College of Southern Idaho who focuses on the American West. That history is also closely tied to the value of gold.

Unlike mining communities in California, which were often located near urban centers, Idaho’s mining communities were more remote, “rough and tough” towns with a culture built around the saloon, Vipperman said.

In Idaho, gold has long had an allure as a hedge against government institutions perceived to be unreliable, said Ron Nate, the president of the Idaho Freedom Foundation.

“Idaho is populated largely with freedom-loving and government-distrusting people,” Nate told the Statesman by email. “Naturally, they wish to be equipped to protect themselves from an overreaching government: namely, investing in gold, silver and firearms.”

Idaho Gov. Little vetoes bill to invest in gold

That distrust of the federal government at times has also seeped into legislation.

As a lawmaker in 2021 and 2021, Nate sponsored bills to allow the state to invest idle funds in precious metals. Legislators continued to float similar bills every year since then, but none have become law.

Nate said he didn’t know whether a similar bill was in the works in the upcoming legislative session, but argued that Idaho was leaving money on the table by not investing its funds in gold. The Legislature this year did pass two bills related to precious metals, one eliminating income taxes on gold and silver and another symbolically reaffirming gold and silver as legal tender.

Supporters of proposals to invest state funds in gold argued that the move would help offset inflation, but precious metals can be risky investments. Their prices are volatile, and the cost of transporting and storing them securely can add up. Gov. Brad Little cited that cost when he vetoed one of the bills in 2024, the Statesman previously reported.

“While the Legislature sought to provide additional flexibility for the state’s investment portfolio, we have a fiduciary responsibility to manage taxpayer dollars with the utmost care and caution,” he wrote at the time. “This legislation and its fiscal note fail to take into account the many additional costs that will be borne by taxpayers for the storage, safeguard and purchase of commodities such as gold or silver.”

For individual investors, it’s more cost-effective to buy gold in larger quantities that are easier to resell, said Jon Fagenstrom, the general manager of Boise’s Rose Hill Coin and Jewelry, which sells precious metals. But “especially in Idaho,” he said, people deliberately buy smaller quantities and coins that would be easier to exchange “at the end of times.”

“They’re thinking, if it’s the end of the world, ‘I want to be able to exchange it, and what if you can’t get change back?’ ” he said. “It’s the apocalypse, and gold is worth $10,000. How do you get change?”

Distrust in institutions leads to gold investments

Some invest in gold for mundane reasons. They watch their savings sit in a bank account and earn minimal interest, and they’re looking for ways to achieve a higher return, Tinklenberg said.

But the “massive” government interventions that came along with COVID-19 sparked a wave of skepticism of the federal government, said Stefan Gleason, who runs Money Metals, a precious metals dealer and depository in Eagle. As the government bailed out companies and printed money to stimulate the economy, many Americans began to doubt the wisdom of such aggressive steps, he said.

“Everybody was concerned about the economy, but they were also becoming very concerned about the powers that be,” he said, “who were giving them all kinds of reasons to distrust them.”

Those concerns prompted an uptick in investment in gold, he observed.

Nate told the Statesman that the public seeks more financial security, often through gold and silver, when the federal government “overspends, over-borrows and oversupplies new money.”

“The federal response to COVID was alarming to many freedom-loving Idahoans, both in terms of the control it wanted to exert and the financial mismanagement of government overreach,” Nate said.

Gleason’s own decision to invest came long before the pandemic. He was drawn to invest in gold and silver in the early 2000s after learning more about the U.S. Federal Reserve’s role in setting interest rates and managing inflation. The deeper he dug, the less he liked what he saw. The way the federal government was able to intervene in the economy struck him as an “unstable” system, he told the Statesman.

Gleason, who has also advocated for legislation for the state to invest in precious metals, said he believed relying on the federal government was risky. He wanted a more reliable, secure way to save money. Gold and silver, he said, were assets he could trust.

“It’s been chosen as money, as good money, sound money,” he said. “It’s the ultimate money.”

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