A few years ago, my mother gave me a gold Krugerrand. She inherited it from her own mother in South Africa, where gold has long doubled as an insurance policy against collapse. In a country plagued by currency crises, inflation, market volatility and political upheaval, the gold coin was a fail-safe if everything else went pear-shaped.

But rather than offering comfort, the Krugerrand that I had tucked away in the corner of my sock drawer for lack of more suitable storage made me increasingly anxious. What if I misplaced it? What if, in a haze of perimenopausal brain fog, I simply forgot it was there? What if it was stolen? I was pretty sure no insurance company would accept “sock drawer” as secure storage and it seemed like an onerous job to find more suitable storage for one coin.

More practically, how would I divide one coin between my two children? Saw it in half? Toss a coin for the coin? The logistics of inheritance were as troubling as the fear of losing it.