It might be a bit of an exaggeration, but not by a lot. I think there is a heavy dose of magical thinking in it, and plenty gold bugs really, actually do seem to think there is something special about gold.

I even once got into a discussion with someone on a science fiction forum who's belief in gold was so absolute that he thought it would inevitably be the foundation of all interstellar commerce, even with alien species because gold is so unique it's one thing everyone would inevitably agree on being a universal store of value.