[Kartographer]

So how long do you trade your junk silver until someone decides they like to see just how much junk silver you have?

There’s no one answer, but human nature being what it is most thieves will lust after gold and silver first and foremost, even when they haven’t had a decent meal in days.

And depending on what it is and the nature of the event there are somethings I wouldn’t trade for all the gold that use to be in Fort Knox.

[central_va]

You need lead and copper to go along with your silver and gold....

All these people trashing hard currency silver and gold will dance for me like a little circus dog for a piece if it....

[cuban leaf]

So how long do you trade your junk silver until someone decides they like to see just how much junk silver you have?

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Life is risk.

[cuban leaf]

And depending on what it is and the nature of the event there are somethings I wouldn’t trade for all the gold that use to be in Fort Knox.

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For personal geographical reasons, that one really cracked me up. ;-)

[cuban leaf]

There’s no one answer, but human nature being what it is most thieves will lust after gold and silver first and foremost, even when they haven’t had a decent meal in days.

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In a REAL SHTF scenario, those that have stuff will have to make some very hard decisions about defending it. Since I’m 80 miles from the nearest city and 50 miles from the nearest large town, I figure that in a scenario you describe above not all that many of those guys will make it to my place. I know that some will, but we’ll have to deal with that if it happens, no matter how rich or poor we are with PM’s and food.

My neighbors are all farmers and have cattle, even if only five or ten head. And then there are all the chickens around here (we could live off the eggs our chickens produce, though a more balanced diet would be desirable).

We are also a very close knit community. We understand that we are stronger as a group.

[silverleaf]

and how long do you shoot your starving neighbors and wandering mobs?

I’m sure you’re one of those guys with remote wooded acreage and a spring in a temperate climate, and lots of bullets

but the average suburban home or country farmhouse was never built to become a block house.

I know from my family pioneer history of 250 years ago what it took to survive when there were roving bands of people willing to kill you and take what you had. I am neither in a climate nor a setting where defending by siege is feasible

My worst case plan is to go on the move when necessary and to be able to carry with us what we need to survive until reaching a place that is safe, and/or to safely hide or otherwide dispose of what wealth we can’t carry until we can get back for it. That may take a while. No further details necessary in this forum

[Fightin Whitey]

There will be those holding large amounts of land, defensible, with good water, livestock and wildlife, and as many hard but reliable men as it takes to keep the place.

For someone like that gold would be greatly useful to buy goods in town, to buy more land or animals, to bribe whoever you needed to bribe, and even to pay his men.

But I agree with you: the more gold you have the more good men you will need to hang on to it.

[Old Sarge]

No, there is no one cut-to-fit, made-to-order answer to the question “What Do I Use As Post-Event Currency?”...

The post-event economy will dictate what the medium of exchange is, but you can pretty much expect it to look like this:

What do you want to trade for? WHATEVER I WANT AT THAT MOMENT.

What do you want to trade with? WHATEVER ELSE YOU’LL ACCEPT.

“Hey, Fellow Survivor, I see you have a case of MRE’s, I’ll trade you these nice pieces of junk silver for it, deal?”

“Gibsme fifteen minutes with your teenage daughter, or no deal, cracker...”

(NOTE: I paraphrased that transaction from a Selco article, so there...)