Wifezilla said:
Stock food first. TOTALLY! But if you have change on hand in a container somewhere, sort the coins. I did that and came out with 20 or so silver dimes, some silver quarters and even a couple of silver 50 pieces.
After you get the silver out, keep all of the nickels (any year), and the copper pennies (pre 1982). Then take all the "junk coins" (as in those with no metal value) and trade them in at the bank for rolls of nickels OR cash the "junk coins" in and go buy some extra bags of feed, or bags of beans.
DITTO WHAT SHE SAID!
KevsFarm said:
Personally, i don't think gold, silver and the likes would be worth much in a SHTFS...You can't eat it, your livestock can't eat it. You may find some with allot of food stores and emergency supplies in general to trade silver/gold with.I think most folk who prepared, will want to keep what they have for survival of themselves and family.
Now this makes an interesting point...one that should bring some serious thought to mind. We here often talk about bartering and in most cases, that is the current thinking because some folks will have stuff that others need and the others will have stuff they need. BUT (he said in huge capital letters) Be careful with whom and WHAT you barter.
First consider the fact that not everyone is the honest, hardworking, fair-play kind of person you might be. Would that this were true but after 61+ years of life, I've found out the hard way that trusting everyone without a healthy dose of skepticism and being careful eventually brings disaster in some form.
If for sake of argument, you end up bartering something you happen to have in reserve volumes and this happens to be what someone less scrupulous who wants it, is willing to TAKE from you because they are crafty? Now your family may go hungry...or worse.
Let's use the example K0xxx makes with Bullets, beans and bandaids (thus demonstrating his military logistical experience).
You happen to meet a stranger who wants some bullets. Little do you know they want ALL your bullets, and ALL your beans. You just thought they needed a hot meal while they were "on the road". You go along, trusting your fellow man and find out (much to your eternal dismay) that this person was not only NOT trustworthy but exploited their knowledge of your resources to steal it from you later. Mores the pity. You might have prevented this.
On the other hand, there are things to barter that do NOT put you in a position of vulnerability (more than once) such as allowing a neighbor to use your barn to store his machinery over the winter in trade for a cow. Now you have what you need and he gets what he needs. All's fair and you both support each other's survival.
Trading work hours is a similar issue. Admittedly sometimes folks will burn you, but the loss is only a few hours of your time and work rather than ALL YOUR BEANS which you need to feed yourself and family.
So what we are talking about here is risk. Monetary trading diminishes risk because there is a standard of exchange. your dollar is worth what his dollar is worth...ostensibly.
So if you place a dollar value (and I use dollar as a term here) then you tell him your item will cost him $X instead. This way, they then have to give you what they have in trade for what you want. This reduces your exposure to risk of "loss".
We lost our sense of this when people stopped using money to trade for a "promise to pay later" in the form of credit cards, etc. Now that this has completely failed, we need to go back to the original system which is currency. If you can't pay for it, you can't have it. PERIOD. You will only afford what you work for and not what you MIGHT WORK FOR IN THE FUTURE (or get from the government)
Our federal currency is no longer welcome in other countries because our debt has grown so large that the dollar has no value. What's more they have collected so much of it, (i.e. taken it out of circulation) and our gov't just keeps printing more...)
We have nothing to back it up if they call in the debt. They have the right to do so, but we can't produce what they want. We have sent all our resources to other countries and now they have what we once had and no longer need our goods. Many of our people have purchased wildly expensive illicit drugs with good money and now there is no return on that investment...worse, they now want a handout from the gov't because they are out of money.
In addition, we don't make anything in this country any more so they can get what goods they want locally or from other countries rather than from us. We design and invent the stuff but the manufacturing secrets are lost to the other countries. We've been "closed out of the market" and as such are now in the throes of economic death.
Not until our products and goods are superior to those built in other countries and made by OUR PEOPLE in OUR COUNTRY will our standing in the world market return to even much less superior.
This was NOT meant to be an economics lecture so I apologize but what I really wanted to say is just "be aware of with whom you are dealing and how much you let them know" when you are in "barter mode". Whatever we use for currency has to be standardized so everyone can "barter" safely. JMHO
YMMV
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