Silver & Gold For Barter – Jerry D. Young

Precious metals / silver / gold for barter Part 2

(Part 1 of this series is available by clicking HERE)

There are many people that plan to limit their silver accumulation to dimes, quarters, and Eagles. That is not to say that some will not take the others in trade, but only in certain circumstances where the person with those coins understands and agrees to the value.

Thousands of people are obtaining PMs for situations in the future. Not all of them involve a PAW as envisioned by some. There will still be regular sources to buy and sell PMs as a financial transaction, not a deal for goods in many scenarios.

Also, if it is the PAW, those people that do have PMs and understand them will do exchanges with others that also understand them. The fact that the majority cannot tell the difference, or trust them in general means they simply will not use them. They will use other methods of doing transactions such as barter and trade, even though they become cumbersome beyond belief without a medium of exchange.

Book Silver

One likely help to get people unsure about US pre-1965 90% silver coins is to have a couple of small reference books that list coins, describes them, and lists their metal content. Do the same for old legal tender gold coins, too, in case someone has some old US gold coins, or gold Pesos, or other foreign gold and silver coins. It might not make a difference, but then again, it might. For one thing, you can double check the facts in case you are unsure about taking a coin you are not familiar with for something.

Many people would not accept collector stamps in a transaction for a can of food, since they have no clue about them, but a circulated US silver dime minted before 1965 many people probably would, even though there is a miniscule risk of counterfeit. There is that risk now with 20 dollar and one-hundred dollar bills, yet we still use them.
The refusal for some to use PMs for whatever reason does not negate their use by others that do know and understand the way of PMs.

As stated previously, there is a good chance that PMs will not have much use, except among hard core believers, in the initial stages of a PAW creating event. Later on, as things stabilize, and the dollar is no long being accepted, PMs will probably begin being used as money. Local groups of people will set the value of labor and commodities by trial and error at first, but will eventually reach agreements with other groups as to what value each of the metals has.

Value: Where To Start

Until the community sets values on the various coins, I plan to start using them at some point with the following provisos: Based on my research on pre-1965 circulated 90% silver US coins. (To get round numbers I used 720 ounces per $1,000 face value of halves, quarters, and dimes. 715 ounces is more accepted, but make calculations much harder, and in the real world, until melting them back into bullion picks up again, I think the microscopic difference per coin won’t be a difference.)

Personally I’m figuring (hoping) on using the ratio of thirty-six ounces of silver to one ounce of gold, just to keep it simple. One hundred pre-1965 half dollars per ounce of gold, two hundred pre-1965 quarters per ounce of gold, or five hundred pre-1965 dimes. And, of course, 36 1-oz Silver Eagles per ounce of gold. That is ten halves for a tenth ounce gold coin, twenty quarters, or fifty dimes.
With the following the base rates of exchange:

1 90% silver dime good for a decent meal (0.0020 oz gold)
1 90% silver quarter for a hour of medium labor such as gardening (0.0050 oz gold)
1 90% silver quarter for one days worth of decent food
1 90% silver quarter for one gallon of fuel

These are bench marks. Everything else will be similarly calculated, including large purchases with gold, some of which will simply be whatever the market will bear, as decided by the two parties of the transaction. If they are both happy, it is a good deal. Based on:

0.0720 oz silver per 90% silver dime
0.1800 oz silver per 90% silver quarter
0.3600 oz silver per 90% silver half

Where a $1,000 face value bag of uncirculated US pre-1965 silve dimes, quarters, and halves contains 723.4 oz of silver. The going rate of circulated coins is 715 oz of silver per bag, but splitting the difference at 720 oz per $1,000 face has the numbers above, making calculations very easy. This is a miniscule difference unless dealing with whole bags, with the intention of melting them down. For day to day use in the PAW, when the time is right, I think the numbers based on 720 oz per $1,000 face value will work better with no disadvantage to the individual customer.

With that disclaimer:

Dimes have 0.0720 ounces of silver or 13.8889 dimes for1 ounce of silver
Quarters have 0.1800 ounces of silver or 5.5556 quarters for1 ounce of silver
Halves have 0.3600 ounces of silver or 2.7778 halves for1 ounce of silver
Dollars have 0.7734 ounces of silver or 1.2930 dollars for1 ounce of silver
Silver Eagles have 1.0000 ounces of silver or 1.0000 Eagle for1 ounce of silver
Using a direct conversion, with silver at $20.00 spot:
A dime is worth $1.44
A quarter is worth$3.60
A half is worth $7.20
A dollar is worth$15.47

(Similar numbers are available using 715 ounces of silver per $1,000 face value in the spreadsheet in the Files section under More.)

With these numbers in mind, and the fact that the conversion ratio of silver to goods will be widely variable at first, before stabilizing,

Dimes:

I think dimes will be needed desperately for the small stuff. And halves, because of the fact that there are 40% silver ones out there, and not everyone will know the difference, I don’t plan on using them at all in the PAW. Others that want to, can. Just too much hassle for me. And the same goes for Silver Dollars. Going to be a lot of controversy over their value, as a lot of them are going to be in much better shape than others, and in most cases, very much better shape than dimes and quarters. Even halves.

So I plan to limit my accumulation to dimes, quarters, and Eagles. That is not to say I would not take the others in trade, but only in certain circumstances where the person with those coins understands and agrees to the value.

For up to $500 FRNs in silver, I would do:

50% in dimes
25% in quarters
25% in Eagles

Over $500 up to $2,000 I would do:

40% in dimes
30% in quarters
30% in Eagles

Over $2,000 I would do:
25% in dimes
25% in quarters
50% in Eagles

Over $5,000 for PM’s I’d start adding gold with similar ratios to 1/10 ounce, ¼ ounce, and 1 ounce Gold Eagles as used for the silver dimes, quarters and Silver Eagles, keeping the gold/silver ratio at 80% silver / 20% gold up to $10,000, then 50%/50%, and ultimately 25% silver to 75% gold when you get into the big money.

PM’s For Barter:

When using PMs on a regular basis, having an agreement for any given barter/trade day on what specific PM coins are worth in terms of other commodities, and posting it might be advantageous. Of course any two people making a barter/trade that includes PMs will apply their own value to the coins, but having a standard value as a reference point for those not familiar with PMs might make it much easier for them.

There is one other coin that I think might have a place in a PAW economy. That is the current versions of the US dollar coin. Susan B. Anthony and subsequent issues of the small dollar coins. Possibly even the Eisenhower Dollars, but probably not. These alloy coins have no precious metals in them, so have no value the way 90% silver coins do.

Because of that, and that they are durable, I think they would make good ‘small change’ coins. For use when a silver dime is too much to give or take to complete a deal, depending on what value a silver dime has been determined by a community. Probably not used as the only form of payment for things, though that could be possible for some really small, very low value items. Equivalent to the old, historical, penny candy items and such.

It would have to be agreed on by the majority of a community, and someone would have to start offering to take them as the small change in various deals before the majority would, so they would know they can get at least something for them if they do take them.
It might or might not work. I do think it is worth considering.

Feel free to ask questions.

Just my opinion.

About the author:

Jerry D Young is an Author, Prepper, Consultant, Philosopher who resides in Nevada. He has written over 100 books, many of which are available at this link:

“I have been a prepper for more than 50 years. I believe that the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts have had it right for decades…”Be Prepared.” Unfortunately, we, as a country seem to have gotten away from that philosophy. There has been a disconnect from the “Old Ways so profound, some people don’t really understand where their food comes from. 

That’s not a problem until the “System” fails. Be it from a hurricane, earthquake, tornado, flood or even a closed road or train route. The system is designed to get JUST what is needed to the stores JUST when it’s needed. So if the “System” fails, then the things we need…the things we believe will be there aren’t. That’s when being a prepper makes sense. Being able to be self-sufficient for the the time needed until the “System” recovers…regardless of how long that takes. 

That’s why so many of my books incorporate the theme of “Being prepared.” Hope you enjoy them!”