I remember when the Sacajawea coin was first introduced, there were several news stories / documentaries about the design of the coin, which included discussion of how they had to develop a special alloy that wouldn't tarnish while exhibiting a gold-like appearance. You can probably find something about it on YouTube.
I agree about using ammo or other small, lower-price items for bartering. One Year After, the sequel to One Second After, talks about using .22 ammo to trade because of its value for hunting small game, which tends to repopulate faster than larger game like deer. I realize it's a fictional example, but it makes sense to me.
Just judging from the behavior of hoarders during another gun-buying panic you could definitely say that this is a smart strategy. How many runs on .257 Roberts can you name? Yet every venue imaginable sells out of .22 ammo as soon as there's another mass shooting.
Can you even find .22 right now?
I've got enough for a while, so I don't go looking for it very often, but is it still in short supply? If it is this should be thought of as "barter commodity #1".
Buying gold is poor as a prep, in my opinion. The key is to stock something you don't really need that people will want in trade. Booze is a decent one.
The thing to trade over the longer term is skills. Being able to build, repair, produce, or heal will be a key to success once some semblance of economy gets going. Everybody runs out of "stuff" eventually, and somebody needs to know how to get/make more. That's basically what most of us are doing right now in the "civilized" world- trading our skills for the means to get what we need and want.
"We must, indeed, all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately." -Benjamin Franklin
"The most important rule in a gunfight is: Always win and cheat if necessary." ~ Clint Smith
I never got the idea of gold really. What is it about it that makes it so valuable? I don't even like gold jewelry. Honestly if shit tanks enough that the dollar isn't going to buy me anything, I don't think it's going to be gold either.
If SHTF and I'm walking down the street and some dickhead asked me how many gold coins I wanted for my loaf of bread I'd probably just brake his legs and steal his wife.
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My grandfather had quite a few that I inherited. They're in interesting combination of Appalachian lore, long forgotten mountaineer skills, history, and indeed things like running a still and canning deliciousness.
I think the project is worth supporting based on nothing else than the fact that it's a pretty wonderful historical record of a people that for most of American history made a go of it on their own, of places that historically were so secluded one might live an entire lifetime and never visit a town thirty miles away. A place utterly disregarded by most Americans and the history there ignored.
A place that's kept the lights on for the past 100 years, and indeed the home of the largest armed insurrections in American history.
Buy the books. At least some of them. The lower numbers tend to have more instruction/how-to in them if that's what tickles your fancy.
YES. Start by getting one or two. Check em out. LOTS of forgotten lore. Im HUGE on having non-electronic sources of info...BOOKS..for shtf.
I am wanting to get some myself. And- if you ever stumble upon old issues of Fur, Fish & Game from the seventies, early eighties..they have a lot of good info in them too.
The obedient always think of themselves as virtuous rather than the cowards they really are.
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