Silver as Method of Exchange?

[historicfirearms]

I live in a northern climate and know damn well that 99 percent of the people here would not make it through the first winter. Most heat with propane or natural gas. A few heat with wood but most of them have outdoor boilers that require electricity. It would be extremely hard to live off the land here considering all the people around and limited game and fish. Food, livestock, firewood and stoves will be in high demand here. Saws and axes would come in handy too. I would not trade any of that stuff for silver or gold.

[Ithaca Gunner]

"Alas Babylon" is my favorite book. I can't count the times I've read it.

Must be my favorite too, I've read it about once a year since 1967.

Dad was 12 with several brothers and brothers in law in France when the Spanish flu killed millions world wide. When the war ended on 11-11-18 dad wanted to join in the celebrating in the streets, grandma would have none of it, she locked him in the house where he would be safe, if just for a time. The uncles that survived the war told of sick men going to hospitals and most often dying, other sick men who went off alone to die more often survived. I guess there's a lesson in that for us somewhere. Cities and other great gatherings of people, (such as the trenches of WWI) are breeding grounds for dieses and pandemics, people can be the filthiest of animals and best avoided when possible.

[Thumbcocker]

There is a reason there are a lot more farmer than hunter gatherers. Humans don't stick with something long once they find something that works better. The whole head for the hills and live off the country thing sounds great. Lots of other people with the same idea mean that the game would be shot out or run off in short order. Many places take a lot of area to support a few game animals. Home grown and canned beans aren't romantic but they are a lot easier to catch and more reliable.

[Mohawk Daddy]

Must be my favorite too, I've read it about once a year since 1967.

Dad was 12 with several brothers and brothers in law in France when the Spanish flu killed millions world wide. When the war ended on 11-11-18 dad wanted to join in the celebrating in the streets, grandma would have none of it, she locked him in the house where he would be safe, if just for a time. The uncles that survived the war told of sick men going to hospitals and most often dying, other sick men who went off alone to die more often survived. I guess there's a lesson in that for us somewhere. Cities and other great gatherings of people, (such as the trenches of WWI) are breeding grounds for dieses and pandemics, people can be the filthiest of animals and best avoided when possible.

My father survived the "Spanish flu" after WWI as a boy. He told me that the prevailing wisdom at the time was not to let flu victims eat; somehow it was believed that this would increase the possibility of survival. He told me that he woke up one day in bed, extremely weak and all the adults were outside doing something. He got up and staggered to the kitchen where he found a pot of cooked beans still warm. He got a bowl and scoop spoon and ate all he could hold. Everyone cried out when he was caught eating beans, but he began to recover right away and lived a long full life thereafter. He always believed that bowl of beans saved his life. The moral to this story? Make sure you have plenty of beans!

[GhostHawk]

Well I have to admit this thread at least made some fairly interesting reading.

Short term, worth more than the Silver IMO is the 3 full cases of alcohol on my porch.
2/3rds of it is Evan Williams Bourbon. Tastes like Jack or Jim, but smoother. If the lights did go off, those who really need a break from the stress will trade most anything for a good stiff drink.

Long term nothing equals what is in your head. It can not be taken away from you against your will. You control it and if it works at all, or how well it works. So it can not really be used against you.

Knowing how to make soap could be worth more than knowing where a thousand ounces of Silver is stashed.

Not many of the current generation appear to know how to do much of anything that does not involve a phone.

If it really goes in the pot bad, it is true, chances are I won't ever have time to make up vast amounts of loaded ammo more than what I have. And If I die, the guy who finds my stash is welcome to it. Just be good to my family is all I ask.

[MaryB]

Why I took up brewing beer, and I can make beer from a lot of different grains. Might not taste the best but someone looking for a mug of relaxer won't mind SHTF if it is corn beer(yes I made some, okay but not good...), wheat beer, barley based... anything can be made into beer and weak beer was the way they survived the dirty water of EU. Beer is boiled so it kills the germs in the water. They drank more beer and wine than water!

[PS Paul]

Frankly, I would go ask my friends on MSNBC or MOVEON.ORG. According to certain posters, they are SIGNIFICANTLY wiser as are their ideologues. The advice one might find on this forum might simply be far too "homespun" or "down home" to find even remotely useful, gnomesayin'?

[birch]

........ummmmm. Could I get a beer please? And, do you accept Peace Dollars?

[smokeywolf]

I have several med bags stocked and on hand. In the most comprehensive one, I have three books: one covers basic to very advanced first aid; one a pill book covering prescription drugs, side effects, interactions and dosages; one a veterinary care book.
Keep in mind that, oft times on med packaging, the exp. date has more to do with the expected life of the packaging than the life or effectiveness of the contents of the package. Wound dressings are a good example of this.

I whole heartedly agree with building a diversified cache of supplies for disaster preparedness. Preppers have gotten a bad name because so many succumb to an irrational mindset in accumulating supplies. While it's better to have a little too much than a little too little, resist getting carried away.

The most important goods and supplies to have are those you will need each and every day to survive thru tomorrow.

I think FEMA says you should have 3 weeks worth of supplies. My opinion is, everybody should have an bare minimum of 3 months of supplies.

Other thing that is likely to be a benefit in any type of collapse is living in a rural area where people are by nature and by habit, more prepared for storm, fire, flood, pestilence. As rural folks are almost always better prepared than city dwellers, scavenging is less likely to start right away.

Just a few more thoughts.

[merlin101]

Wow! Sure is a lot of differing opinions here. I believe everyone should be prepared for a local disaster and that could be power outage (we just had 120,000 homes without power for up to 6 days) or it could be wildfires or anything else including the end of the world as we know it.
In some cases silver/gold would be valuable in others it might not be. BUT nobody really knows for sure! So if you have a plan why wouldn't PM's be part of that plan?
Bugging in vs bug out? I've read post on another site and almost fall out of my chair laughing about how these guy's are going to carrying an AR with 500 rnds and a "long range" gun with 100-200 rnds and a handgun with 100 and that's on top of food and water! No one's going to get far like that!
I have silver, some in US "scrap" silver coins some in Eagles and some rounds and bars and it's all part of a plan that includes food water and everything down to toilet paper and a few bodybags.
Jon B is correct, you can really get into prepping!

[dragon813gt]

Well this thread caused me to spend money today. I bought some junk silver at $0.19 over spot. It was more the minimal price over spot that caused me to buy. I look weekly and buy when deals are to be had. When premiums are that low I will buy w/out hesitation.

[54bore]

Well this thread caused me to spend money today. I bought some junk silver at $0.19 over spot. It was more the minimal price over spot that caused me to buy. I look weekly and buy when deals are to be had. When premiums are that low I will buy w/out hesitation.

Wish i had a bunch to sell ya!!

[Traffer]

I don't want to offend anyone here but about 30 years ago I learned of a sure fire way to gain and maintain financial security. Now I pay no attention to any doomsday talk. Oh, the sure fire way? It's called trust in God. The more you trust Him the more he gives you security. From the inside, no matter what happens to the economy.

[mold maker]

Not being a young man, I'd prefer to end my days right where I grew up. I'd much rather pass as a rich man than the way I've lived. So all of you that denigrate gold and silver as a means to happiness and prosperity can send that worthless junk to me and we'll both be happy. I can only shoot a couple guns at a time so I'll trade my antique and modern guns for silver and gold as opposed to paper money which looses value every day. I have CDs that are worth less due to inflation then when I bought them and the prospect for that to change are worse than the chance for the SHTF.
Just let me know how much you have to dispose of and I'll make arrangements for you. Your not going to take a thing with you when you depart, so send it my way. Might as well one of us be happy till the end. God takes care of the rest.

[RogerDat]

But it does seem on average the lord favors the prepared. And does seem to provide a fair number of "life lessons" to the foolish.

If you can afford more elaborate or extensive preparation, as well as the potential loss from not using the financial investment then go for it. If you have to put tires for your car on a credit card to preserve a silver stash? That gets a little more dubious. As for me, ammo, energy, water, and a decently stocked pantry will have to do, along with a little cash. Only thing that I find troubling is I can't get the wife to replace a bag of dog food as she opens it. Sometimes we have only a day or two worth of dog food on hand.

You know there was a Russian or Eastern European family that after the iron curtain came down was able to return to their family home abandoned during WW2 and based on stories told by since deceased relatives were able to recover buried family valuables. Thing that has bearing here is that they didn't take those gold, silver, or jeweled items with them when they fled during the war. They took blankets, food, and clothes. Also some pictures.

[onceabull]

There have always been positive & negatives tales about gold,silver,& diamonds,as investments and/or "insurance"...The biggest diff. twixt now & "then" is likely the speed of change...Personally I've been able to profit on both the long and short side of the precious metals markets & gold & silver mining stocks.. The physical metals are the choice for the "insurance"(obviously) and one can accumulate whatever comfort requires during both short and long term market bottoms....ALWAYS better to be right,than greedy...Onceabull

[jonp]

Would you all go with Morgans or Eagles? Maybe something else?

Some buy rounds as they are cheaper and are pure silver but I buy monetary silver. It doesn't matter which country, I have American, Canadian etc but a recognized government issued silver coin might be a better bet in my view

[jonp]

check out apmex, or silvertown, or JMboullion, they are three pretty good websites to check on the current silver prices and what's available.

they even have 'snap' boards. Silver bars you can snap into smaller quantities of silver if you are worried about trading them.

I would recommend silver rounds that EVERYONE is familiar with, such as Walking Liberties, that way the person you are trading with "KNOWS" you have authentic silver.

I buy from all of them and they are good. Make sure you compare the prices as they can be off a little from each other. I set aside a portion of my retirement funds each week to buy on a steady basis to dollar cost the silver out. I also buy gold this way but in a lesser amount than silver.

It's all part of the retirement strategy of diversifying my funds.

[jonp]

Canning jars, flats, primers, seeds, lead.

Of course. With lead, primers and powder you can take all the silver you want although All the silver in the world wont shoot a deer if you are really hungry, either

[texasnative46]

To All,

I'm seriously considering acquiring 500.oo worth of common date/"bulk" silver dimes & an equal amount of US quarters, as IF we should have "a temporary mess" that ends ATM/banks/credit cards being helpful as exchange for a time, small denomination CHANGE (rather than gold/silver dollars/bars) may be REALLY HANDY & 100% better than a pocket-full of credit/debit cards.
(I've lived through, in the last 5 decades, 3 major hurricanes, several tornados & an ice storm that "shut down the county", that I was in at that time, for over 3 weeks.)

yours, tex