All the gold mined since the beginning of time would fit in a cube that's about 75' on each side. It would fill a football field to a depth of 1 meter. That's not a lot of material.
Much of it is squirreled away by governments, as in the case of the US with 8133 tonnes. There's a lot of jewelry. And industrial uses.
Truth is the amount available for individual purchase and consumption is relatively small.
There are a bit less than 8 billion people in the world. Estimates show that the total value of all gold in the world is about $12 trillion. That works out to about $1,500 for each person in the world. Or .75 ounces each.
When you back out that held by governments and other institutions for safekeeping, there's probably about .375 ounces for each person.
Yeah, that's relatively scarce. If consumers get the notion that buying physical gold is a good idea, supplies could and would dry up very quickly.
