By Eric
At GoldAndSilverOnline.com we get many questions about bartering with precious metals in a post-apocalyptic society, and while there are no definitive answers in this situation, there are some things that we believe that we all can do to be prepared for a worst case scenario.
First and foremost have your priorities in order when it comes to food, water, shelter and security. There is no point to having precious metals if you aren’t around to use them. Gold and silver should be thought of as wealth preservation, and a way to transition through a dollar collapse or other possible disaster scenarios. Therefore have these areas covered first before delving into precious metals.
With that being said, gold and silver have proven to do well when currencies fail. For example, during the Zimbabwe hyperinflation and currency collapse of 2008 and 2009, other currencies like the US Dollar and gold were being used to buy necessities. People of Zimbabwe were panning and digging for gold in the mountains and streams just for a few grains of gold per day to buy food. Those that had gold before inflation kicked in, had their purchasing power held even throughout the collapse, and that is how you want to think of precious metals in your preps in a general sense, as wealth preservation. However, there also could arise some day-to-day usefulness to precious metals.
How to Use Precious Metals in Your Preps
Imagine yourself in a post-societal collapse and a bartering community has been established in your area, and let’s say that there is a guy at the farmers market who is taking precious metals for fresh vegetables. If you hand him a one ounce gold eagle coin he isn’t likely to be able to break that for you. You wouldn’t go into the grocery store with a two thousand dollar bill to buy $50 in vegetables. Therefore it makes sense to have smaller denominations of gold and silver coins in your preps. This is why junk silver, also known as pre-1965 90% silver dimes, quarters, half-dollars and dollars are so popular in prepping. Carrying around a pocket full of dimes and quarters is easy to do and will more than likely be sufficient for your day-to-day necessities. Having 90% silver coins is great for bartering.
We also recommend 1/10 oz. gold eagles for bartering situations. These are a very lightweight, compact way to carry around quite a bit of wealth in your bug out bag. For bartering situations we recommend 90% silver and 1/10 oz. gold eagles only. They are all minted by the US Government and are therefore the most recognizable in the US. You wouldn’t want to be bickering with someone you want to do business with about the validity of your 1 oz. silver bar because the seller has never seen one before. Therefore keep your metals to small denominations that are highly recognizable.
Wealth Preservation
For those of you who have a extra money lying around after you have your food, water, barter-able gold and silver taken care of, then it makes sense to buy larger denominations of gold and silver coins as wealth preservation. The intent here is to be able to successfully transition from one currency to another in the event of a dollar collapse. In this case we recommend a mix of gold and silver. Gold is less volatile than silver but silver is thought by many experts to have more profit potential due to historic ratios and price levels.
If you have any questions or need any guidance with precious metals in your preps call us, ask for Eric Griffin. Eric has been prepping for over 5 years and has extensive knowledge in gold and silver.
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From PJ: I’m sure many of you that have been following this blog for quite some time and are aware of my skepticism related to precious metals. While not totally opposed to owning precious metals (I do own some silver), I place them pretty far down on the priority list and never really recommend them unless quite a few other gates have been met on the prepping journey. However I will not fault those who choose to own precious metals and specifically asked Eric to write an article like this for those who might want more information. If you feel like you need more questions answered, or are in the market for more metals, please contact Eric and he’ll get you squared away.
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