Gold and silver for Barter?

[Staffs prepper]

I think you should keep you silver to produce your antibiotics.

Prescription antibiotics and diabetic insulin may possibly be In high demand, along with pain killers.

Simple things like matches, weapons and water filters could be needed.

Im curious as to what someone do with a mountain of gold and no where to spend it?

[Dr_zoidberg]

Gold and silver are a hedge against inflation. They have kept their value quite well compared to fiat currency over the past 100 years. If you have significant amounts of savings sloshing around it might be worth putting it in some precious metals so you can . Its likely that when society and the monetary system reestablish themselves that the currency will be on a gold or silver standard as it used to be before ww1. That means you'll be able to convert your precious metals back into hard currency and re-establish your savings.

[nickdutch]

The last time I checked (yesterday) the silver to gold ratio was over 60:1 which historically is extreme, this does suggest that silver is a highly undervalued asset. It would make sense (and I could easily be wrong about this so don't quote me or trust me in this for that matter) that people love Gold more at the moment, and eventually there may be such a demand on Gold that it will be too expensive for normal people to buy, so silver will then make bigger gains and may catch up to something closer to the 10 or 15:1 ratio from history. BUT (and its a very big BUT), silver and gold prices are based on the paper futures exchanges and there is a bit of a debate that the ownership of "paper" silver or gold might not be representative of the amount that dealers / banks have in their coffers. Thus suggesting that people are buying and selling on promises of future prices which devalues the physical asset as a result of "paper" trading, and indeed that too many people may be claiming the same amount of physical once they own their "paper" silver or gold certificates. We don't actually know the value of what we are buying when we buy this stuff.

Historically, it is cheap, but its a gamble.

[Moony]

I agree Nickdutch about the disparity between the 'paper' / 'market' value of PMs and their actual value for physical holdings. Recent changes in market prices have been driven by a few market players placing huge buys + sells of paper assets (that do not actually exist) which illustrate the total disconnect of the market to the real world. JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs, some of the largest traders in this market has been under investigation in the US for a while for their activities in this market

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/m ... b1uJeVHb0O

"A former Goldman Sachs trader working at the London Bullion Market Association -Maguire was scheduled to testify last week before the Commodities Futures Trade Commission, which is looking into the activities of large banks in the metals market."

"Back in 2007, Morgan Stanley agreed to settle a $4.4-million lawsuit brought by precious-metal clients, who alleged that Morgan offered to buy gold and silver and store it for the investors, but never purchased any metal and still charged them storage fees. "