4% is still quite a large margin. Its similar or worse here in New Zealand with only one or two places in the whole country that buy and sell gold and they charge at least 5% margin. In Asia it is very different with Thailands gold shops trading within a 1-2% margin range. Recently swapped some sats for Thai gold bars as I had never held gold before and I see it in the near term are rising while sats follow the 4 year cycle down fr the next few years- still, mostly still hodling sats! I actually feel a lot more comfortable holding sats in terms of security- still getting used to the idea of stashing physical gold securely. I guess in terms or markets and margins its a question of scale and us in the Anglosphere where fiat money has not been as bad as perhaps Asian historically we have had more trust in the fiat. Times change and the petrodollars hegemony is declining and its subsidiary tribute states like NZ and Canada will be affected- they already are. Peoples perceptions of money are deeply ingrained and change slowly- most people are not really aware of let alone understand the fiat debt slavery they live under!