cash vs precious metal

Discussion in 'General Survival and Preparedness' started by Elessar, Mar 20, 2013.


  1. Elessar

    Elessar Monkey+++

    I have been reading a lot of information and one thing that has confused me with conflicting information is the subject alternatives. I was intending to buy some silver but have read most recently that silver may not be of significant value in the post world order. Gold may be of some value and cash will work for a short time following any breakdown.

    What sounds like sage advice may be to have all three providing for the flexibility to trade in the currency of the time. However, I'd be interested in your opinion. What do you think will serve as currency after The Event?
     
  2. Donldson

    Donldson Monkey+

    Currency is really going to boil down to what the person you are trying to buy something from has a need for. In the US we have largely forgotten how to negotiate, we walk into a store and pay what the sign says. We get offered a job and take the rate they say. Outside of cars, houses, and flea markets we just have given it up. If it were sudden then in the first weeks people would price things at dollar amounts and accept very little deviation. Cash would probably hold out for a while since we are very deeply programmed that it has value. Eventually it will fall out of favor, either with a new local currency or for straight bartering. In either case gold and silver will always be seen as valuable I believe. It is more deeply programmed in us that gold is valuable, by thousands of years of conditioning.
     
    tulianr likes this.
  3. Beano

    Beano Monkey

    FWIW, my $0.02: have plenty of both. In my amateur opinion, cash will surge in viability in the immediate SHTF time frame. After that, goods and services (especially food, booze, ammo and tobacco) will be currency, probably for a while. As things stabilize, PMs will be the building blocks of commercial resurgence.

    At any rate, cash will get you through the SHTF scenarios ma nature deals us on occasion, especially if you are evacuating an area ahead of a storm. I can personally attest to this.
     
    VisuTrac and tulianr like this.
  4. tulianr

    tulianr Don Quixote de la Monkey

    Just as with any of my other preparations, I try not to put all of my eggs into one basket. No currencies have true intrinsic value. They are all only worth what someone else thinks they are worth, and events outside of your control can always cause the values associated with silver, gold, or dollars, to drastically change. When it comes right down to brass tacks, food and firewood have true value.
     
    Yard Dart, VisuTrac, JABECmfg and 2 others like this.
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