In the smaller communities here in Alaska it is not all that uncommon. I’m not a fan of furs; they are too difficult for me to convert. It just happened I was able to turn these into something more negotiable fairly quickly.
I’m more comfortable trading gold, silver, fish, venison or moose meat for goods and services informally. I think we are going to be doing more of that.
.
I convinced my contractor to let me pay him a third of the bill in silver. He'll be glad he did later.