[mrsun]

One of the main points is mentioned in the article:

> Germans were already well known for their love of physical money and data privacy.

I think the most important point here is privacy. If you deposit $10k into a bank account, of course you are tracked. But if you put the $10k into a bank vault you are not tracked.

> Also, no "cash owner" would buy gold to save vault space.

Saving vault space is only one of the reasons. Gold is more stable than cash.

[brokensegue]

the cash in bank vaults mentioned in the headline come from cash deposited into accounts. nobody in this situation is putting cash into a safety deposit box.

banks can't just convert their cash to gold because if gold were to drop in price then they wouldn't be able to cover the money they owe their account holders.