When/If SHTF, how long will silver/gold rounds and such last?

I was just thinking about this this morning, and wondered what everyone thought. Let's say we have a SHTF scenario, a hyperinflation or something. If we have to start using our silver or gold bullion as currency, how long will these soft .999 rounds last? If the USD doesn't stabilize for 25 years, won't all these .999 rounds wear down to nothing?
I imagine we'd use pre-1964 coinage and maybe coppers for small purchases, but I imagine that people will start quartering ASEs or maple leafs or whatever, to be used as a smaller denomination. Those home made quarter ounce pieces will be even worse than full rounds, and they'll be unrecognizable after a while.
Anyway, any input? Will .999 rounds last long enough, or will they all need to be melted anyway and made into alloys with some copper in them?

 

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They'd probably use it to make coins with a speck of silver in it.

 

This got me wondering, if this happens, what will our "silver dollar" look like?. Even at today's price the famous Panama pill has $1.30 in silver in it (.0362ASW). The new silver dollar will be tiny indeed. Or a very low % silver content.

 

I don't know why anybody would quarter a 1 oz round instead of just using 90% dimes and quarters. The rounds and small bars out there still have to be massively outnumbered by silver change.

I just don't see a SHTF scenario that drives us back to hard money, though. My silver is still honestly a speculative play, not doomsday prep.

 

No offense, but if the SHTF, I hope you're standing in front of it, not me!

NOTE: I had intended on using another person's name instead of "you're", but it probably would have been deemed politically incorrect.

Chris

 

Politically incorrect? Possible but bluntly honest also.

 

"Meanwhile, in New Hampshire, many merchants associated with the Free State Project have begun accepting gold and silver at their businesses. Innovation abounds here and the practice of encasing small amounts of silver in laminated cards seems to be the most successful.

Shire Silver encloses silver and gold wire in their cards and measures them in terms of grams. It's much easier to trade a flat, plastic card containing a gram of silver than to carry around a 1 oz coin. However, even their website will admit that the premium on such a small amount of silver makes it less than ideal for investment purposes. Of course, when you're ready to barter, they'll be happy to take your 1 oz rounds in return for some Shire Silver. And that Shire Silver is being accepted by more and more merchants across New Hampshire and beyond."

Full article here: Peter Schiff: The rise of the barter economy [July 5, 2011]

 

Hmm…does you’re = Obama? :too-funny:

 

In a SHTF senario, gold and silver will be something you sew into your coat before you slip over the border towards Siberia in search of freedom. In the great wind-up before the toss at the spinning blades, all "patriotic Americans" will be turning over their stacks for those shinny new $1000.00 FRNs. Only those greedy rich hoarders, who are the root cause of our international monetary crisis, would be holding out against the government's more than generious offer. In a SHTF senario, any hard assets (gold, silver, oil in Alaska, maybe a national park or two) will be used to satisfy the international debt and prop up off shore FRN. A new domestic currency will be printed and the public will be assured that "it's alright now". I'm glad I don't believe in this, er, at least I don't think it will............

 

I kept my first lucky round in my pocket for a couple years with no case around it, and it didn't look very good.. brown, dingy, but the shape wasn't bad. I don't think 25 years would wear it down to nothing unless it was treated like a penny, but I wouldn't bet on it retaining its original value especially if the weight and purity aren't legible. If you take care of your bullion it can last indefinitely though.

 

In the SHTF senario, I think anyone who hasn't saved any silver, gold, etc. will be in very hard times. Paper money will be worthless as well as non silver coins. I think copper will be considered a PM then. Every grocery, drug, liquor, and 711 will have a scale to calculate just what your PM coins are worth when you want to purchase anything.
If you have a job, I have no idea how you will be paid. My guess also is we'll revert to the early forties where anykind of money was hard to come by and monthly government ration tickets will be needed for meat and and butter. But no ration ticket, no meat.Of course there will be the black market again. You think times are tough now? You haven't seen anything yet. And if you are old and/or disabled you best have a family to fall back on because there will be no Social Security. Doctors and hospitals will be unaffordable. LET US DO OUR BEST TO NOT LET THINGS COME TO THIS.

 

This is an interesting point. I'd imagine you'd just still be paid in those same Federal Reserve Notes, as they just keep decreasing in value. You'd just have to spend them immediately, so they don't lose any more value while in your hands.
In this day of huge corporations, though, I wonder if they'd be able to pay us daily, instead of weekly or biweekly (like me). And my checks are cut (well not cut, its direct deposit and online statements) from out of state, so I wonder if that'd be an issue too.

 

That is not necessarily the case with coins during hyperinflation. It was discussed here on CT quite some months ago about how the value of coins in Zimbabwe during the hyperinflation period a couple years ago did not loose their worth but instead acted differently in commerce. I doubt that I will be able to dig up that earlier discussion now, but if I do find it, I will post a link for you. Until then, check out this post on a Live Journal page I was able to find:

[FONT=Arial,Helvetica][SIZE=+1]What happens to Coins during a Hyperinflation?[/SIZE][/FONT]

 

Gold and silver would lose their value, in my opinion. Think about it.....if the dollar tanked, it would take more dollars to buy an oz of say gold. Lets say gold goes to 10K an oz because the dollar is worth about 10 cents in today's money. Of course, all the doomsdayers won't have the advantage of cashing in on this because they'll be cutting up their gold into microscopic particles to use in daily transactions, at Walmart won't make change for a 10K coin and you car's on empty. So, in reality, your gold becomes quite worthless and the only people who are getting by are those who were smart enough to con someone else into buying their hunks of metal for usable cash. Thus, bullion without currency is absolutely worthless, no matter how you spin it.
Guy

 

I can see your point with gold, but silver is more ideal for common transactions which was one reason why I chose silver over gold. PM's were money before currency existed, so I don't know that I agree that they are worthless without currency. Although in the event they are subject to exchange rates of a varying dollar value it would be difficult to agree on what something is worth, but that is an obstacle with the barter system regardless.

 

...and that's when their PMs will be melted down into silver bullets to eliminate the competition, stealing what they need to survive. That in itself could bring with it fighting/threatening/wounding/killing others to steal fuel sources to melt the metals to make the bullets to get the gas or whatever they need to go find the food they couldn't horde enough of beforehand to stave off the hunger now compelling them to "survive" the shtf-scenarios. LOL! :rollling: If people insist on behaving that selfishly in such dire circumstances and can't work together, then no one "survives" such times. It would behoove everyone to form communities and relationships for working together in the event of such scenarios or calamities. As stated in this tread already, we all should work now to prevent any such things from ever happening in the first place.

 

I think it would be easier to run off and live in the wilderness away from all the mayhem. I don't think the wife could live without a shower and the a/c though.

 

I think "the mayhem" already has plans to run off to their plots of land and holes in the ground where the canned goods are stored out in the wilderness too, so don't go that way or be prepared for a traffic jam trying to get up in the mountains or to that out of the way spot you plan to sit things out. LOL!

I think the beer commercial where the aliens take the men from earth for procreation of their alien female race at the offer of beer will be similar, the earth women will rejoice while the boys go play in their little shtf-clubs in the wilds.

 

Depends on what SHTF scenario it is right? I mean, is the world economy in collapse or just the US? If its the world, why does anyone want PM? PM has a value as a means to escape to somewhere where its better.

If its just the US, then PM will hold its value in real terms, but fast appreciate versus the dollar just like every other commodity. Hyperinflation is not new, and how people get paid is simply in local currency that they quickly try to spend since it is decreasing in value every day. Post WWI Germany and Zimbabwe are great examples. Also, a lot of people would start using another currency, like the CDN$ instead.

I think the rounds would last a long time, since they would not be "coins", but rather an expensive commodity. People would not treat them as badly as normal coins.

 

PMs are a store of value until times get better. It's a way to carry some of your wealth from this side of collapse to the other side and eventual recovery.

I don't buy the idea that gold and silver will be used as money, but neither do I believe they will become valueless. "Hey look! There's a piece of string over there next to the pile of gold coins. Grab the string and lets go."