When society collapses...

[The Heretic]

At my age, a real shtf situation means I'm probably gonna die. What I collect silver for is the collapse of the dollar, which I see as a real possibility. In that case the silver will have more value than the money it took to purchase. Remember the purpose of money is to make uneven trades possible. Would you trade a warm coat for 1 asprin? what if the other party didn't have anything else to trade? that is where money comes into the picture, and silver has been money for thousands of years.

I would trade 1 aspirin for a warm coat - but I would probably offer a couple of bottles for a nice coat.

I stock up on OTC meds; painkillers of different kinds (Ben Gay is just aspirin in a creme and it works well), anti-diarrheals, antihistamines/et. al., vitamins, lactase. Also triple anti-biotic creams, etc.

I figure a $5 bottle of aspirin serves better for making small change than a $20 silver coin. And I am always using aspirin, and tylenol PM.

 

[TTSX]

And anti-diarrhea pills.

 

[Pops1911]

May I recommend Selco Begovic's book "The Dark Secrets or SHTF Survival". He lived through his own SHTF scenario and lived to write about it. He writes that the biggest issues were the lack of food and clean water. Wrote that "they" survived on air dropped MREs. Batteries! Have lots of batteries you can trade. Precious metals would get you killed. He also said that even those who had a food stash eventually ran out. Want to find food? Follow a fat person home! Anyway, the book is worth a read - survival in modern times from someone who survived it through the Balkan wars.

 

[Cosmoline]

May I recommend Selco Begovic's book "The Dark Secrets or SHTF Survival". He lived through his own SHTF scenario and lived to write about it. He writes that the biggest issues were the lack of food and clean water. Wrote that "they" survived on air dropped MREs. Batteries! Have lots of batteries you can trade. Precious metals would get you killed. He also said that even those who had a food stash eventually ran out. Want to find food? Follow a fat person home! Anyway, the book is worth a read - survival in modern times from someone who survived it through the Balkan wars.

Batteries, matches, water purification tabs/bleach would probably be excellent trade goods that you can break up easily... "I'll give you three AA's for that water" or something. Matches would be like pocket change. You can get a ton matches for cheap right now and it isn't like they go bad if they stay dry.

 

[fstdraw]

I think the question was if society was to collapse. My normal way of acting would be out the window of course and a new way of doing business would emerge. Thank you guys for letting me express my opinion.

 

[The Heretic]

Prilosec/et. al. - there are people, especially middle aged to seniors (more females than males, but many males too - I have it), who can't sleep without taking at least 20 mg before they go to bed. It isn't not being able to sleep, it is not being able to sleep without acid reflux causing you to wake up choking on the reflux - which is not fun and can be fatal (aspiration of the reflux).

 

[po18guy]

"We deal in lead friend..."

All items or skills will have value at certain times and places.
What that value is , will be dependent on the need for that item or skill , much the same can be said for that item's or skill's cost.
Andy

Along our southern "border", there is a saying: "Plata (silver) or plomo (lead)" It is well to be stocked with both.

 

[BLINDone3]

Coffee, Salt, Pepper, Sugar, Flour. Easy to store and doesn't take up much space. It would be all the little basics that are cheap at the moment but folks now have no clue how to get them, grow them or find them. Think mid 1800's farmer.

 

[Longwalkhome]

Booze will trade well, a still will be worth gold.

 

[Carbon]

Coffee, Salt, Pepper, Sugar, Flour. Easy to store and doesn't take up much space. It would be all the little basics that are cheap at the moment but folks now have no clue how to get them, grow them or find them. Think mid 1800's farmer.

Reminds me of the traders who would make out like bandits hauling various staples to the yearly rendezvous of olde, trappers flush with cash and partying buying whatever goods they could find at exorbitant prices. It was a lawless time in a sense, perhaps we might end up in a new age version of that.

 

[Knobgoblin]

If trade is established, it will likely be neither. Silver has no direct essential value in a survival situation, and only has a perceived value as currency and fabrication. Ammo is likely better as it offers value in defense and hunting situations, however if you are able to trade it implies some level of stability in which defense is less of a concern than say hygeine and sustenance.
I'd stack cleaning supplies, food stuff and fuels for intended barter. Those items have the advantage of not being used against you as well.
If the crisis is short term, I would definitely trade my TP and soap for silver tho.

Depends is the most encompassing answer.

 

[gmerkt]

Ammo and precious metals serve different purposes in a societal collapse scenario. The ammo is for the immediate, violent stage. The precious metals are for after when society(ies) sort themselves out. The importance of each will never entirely go away.

 

[bolus]

May I recommend Selco Begovic's book "The Dark Secrets or SHTF Survival". He lived through his own SHTF scenario and lived to write about it. He writes that the biggest issues were the lack of food and clean water. Wrote that "they" survived on air dropped MREs. Batteries! Have lots of batteries you can trade. Precious metals would get you killed. He also said that even those who had a food stash eventually ran out. Want to find food? Follow a fat person home! Anyway, the book is worth a read - survival in modern times from someone who survived it through the Balkan wars.

I live about 500 yards from a pasture of a cattle ranch, or what I call the "SHTF meat department" Occasionally they get loose and walk down my street and no one comes looking for them for days. I'll die of a red meat induced heart attack before starvation in the apocalypse.

 

[Longwalkhome]

74 Americans in Chicago shot over the weekend probably think society has collapse. Most gun controls ever yet people being shot. Do away with the gun controls and folks can defend themselves. In about two years the criminal element would be dead.

Then the barter could begin.

 

[Certaindeaf]

All addictive substances will be worth everything to addicts..

This is why my licking toad is not for sale.

 

[sobo]

What's better "currency" for bartering?
Ammo or silver?

Assuming you've taken care of the 10 Essentials for yourself/family (in no particular order)...
1. Water/water sourcing/water filtration
2. Food (long-term storable) and a way to cook it (propane, white gas, charcoal briquets, open fire, etc.)
3. Weapons and ammo
4. Sources of light (and batteries)
5. First aid items, to include any Rx meds
6. Heritage seeds
7. Personal hygiene items (and feminine hygiene items, if applicable)
8. Baby/elder care items (if applicable)
9. Energy sources
10. Bleach (you'd be surprised how utilitarian this is)

Then for bartering, I have the following on hand (again, in no particular order)...
1. More food (so you have some that you can spare to give away)
2. Water (especially if you have a source where you can replenish your own at will)
3. Charcoal briquets
4. Alcohol (booze lasts waaaaaaay longer than beer will)
5. Cigarettes and chewy t'backy
6. First aid items
7. TP
8. Tools
9. Lumber
10. Firewood
11. Heritage seeds
12. OTC meds
13. Propane
14. Gasoline
15. Batteries
16. Extra clothing/coats, blankets/pillows
17. Sunscreen
18. Insect repellant
19. Feminine hygiene products
20. Ammo
21. Baby/elder care items
22. Cleaning supplies - especially bleach
23. Books/magazines
24. Hard candies
25. Musical instruments

I'm sure there's more, but these are what comes to my mind right off the top of my head.
You will note that there is a lot of overlap in the 10 Essentials and the bartering items. Gee, I wonder why that would be...

As far as silver, @gmerkt has it right. It will eventually become the new medium of exchange in a SHTF/societal collapse once things calm down and sort themselves out. I buy junk silver for this purpose. Bullion won't be easy to divide or make change, so I'd skip that entirely. Gold will have "too much value" in a post-SHTF world to be used as a daily medium of exchange, so unless you want to buy someone's belt-fed machine gun or their up-armored Humvee, I'd stick with junk silver as far as PMs go.

 

[Cosmoline]

This is why my licking toad is not for sale.

C'mon man... Don't bogart the toad.

 

[sobo]

This is why my licking toad is not for sale.

C'mon man... Don't bogart the toad.

He's totally harshin' my mellow, d00d...

 

[Knobgoblin]

Living on the beach in Northern Humboldt county had the mystical " amanita musacaria " available for seasonal harvest.
I never dared. To many horror stories

 

[Cosmoline]

Living on the beach in Northern Humboldt county had the mystical " amanita musacaria " available for seasonal harvest.
I never dared. To many horror stories

One of my hobbies is mushroom hunting and amateur study.

You can eat them, but it requires a pretty lengthy process to strip it of the ibotenic acid (not the psychedelic component, but that is stripped in the process as well, as it's water soluble). If you have an amanita muscaria you want to boil it in at least three changes of water, i.e. boil, drain, add new water. The colour will drain from the cap, and it will become very pale throughout and is then entirely edible. I've never tried this myself, but it is common practice for those who eat them frequently.

They are incredibly common here in the PNW and I have a ton of pictures of them. Green and blue ones are more uncommon than the typical red and orange ones. The psychedelic components (muscimol, as opposed to psilocybin). It also has high levels of ibotenic acid which is what typically makes people sick when they eat them as it's mildly toxic and causes digestive upset. It isn't recommended for people who want a trip as it has affects more in line with barbiturates and dissociatives and is frequently known as a "bad trip". One of the main affects is "Alice in Wonderland syndrome" where you lose sense of size and scale, and it is wildly uncomfortable.

If you eat one, even on accident and it is certainly a muscaria, you're safe. It takes a pretty fair amount to experience any of the psychedelic effects.