Hi Jim,
I spent two years as a security technician for a major armored car company. The idea that banks have silver coins in their circulation is quite remote. Banks get most of their coins from a Federal Reserve coin center pre wrapped and counted. All silver coins, Mexican, Canadian and other coins are thoroughly separated. I have been in one of these Federal Reserve centers and believe me they literally had buckets full of foreign coins. Any silver coins found in a bank would have to come from some local citizen spending them in a local store. Returned to the bank they would only get into circulation if the bank separated and rolled its own coins. [JWR Adds: For finding silver, the best coin rolls to ask for are customer-rolled coins–especially those from school districts. There are typically marked in pen with the customer’s account number. ] The one bank on our weekly run that did separate and roll its own coins claimed the silver coins for its own use. And they were getting ready to shut down this process because the local labor costs far exceeded the cost of having the coins custom rolled by the federal reserve center. How much coin does an armored car carry? Our six-day-a-week runs usually averaged weekday 800 to 2,000 lbs of coins each day. Saturday we would perhaps have 200 to 300 lbs. All of our bank customers returned their counter coins not in rolls to the Federal Reserve to be separated and rolled except for one bank. Daily pickups of coins never came close to the amount of coins we were hauling into these towns. I was amazed. Where on Earth were all the coins going? Much more delivered than were being returned to the Federal Reserve? I would say the ratio in to out was 10/1.
Ever wonder how much money goes into an ATM machine? We used to put $250,000 into an ATM in a shopping mall once a week [both $10s and $20s.] It was one of the most dangerous operations we carried out. One to open and load the machine and the other with a 12 gauge shotgun held at high port, standing guard.
I also worked as a shift manager for a convenience store later and that is the place where I got silver coins each week. Often 20 to 40 coins a week. My manager didn’t care if I traded them out of the cash drawer. Prowling distant small towns with second hand stores I have recently bought quarters for six times face value. And I do not mind paying $24 for American Eagles in plastic rounds either.
You cannot eat gold/silver nor $10 and $20 bills and the currently-issued coins. But you will be able to trade eventually with silver coins and gold coins for land and machinery. The best trade items will be cigarettes, alcohol, gasoline, diesel, kerosene, ammo, matches and toilet paper. You’d better learn how to make a casket out of pallets and line it with old cast off rugs.
In the area where we live there are massive construction of gas drilling pads being built. These pads usually are some 80 yards square, leveled off and then graveled. With an accompanying well-constructed graveled road and cattle guard at the road entrance. Gas wells here are usually 15,000 to 30,000 feet deep. Drilling platforms are huge to support the weight and some go to 90+ feet. Each site is like a small town with all the support trailers.
The other massive construction going on is the wind farms. Convoys of trucks carrying on each truck a single wide turbine blade or the generator truck-trailers that are 30- wheelers. The extra long trailers for the turbine support stems are 56-wheelers.
My wife and I both will be 70 soon. Little did we expect that the coming years will most likely be the most exciting times of our lives. I have been a prepper since 1970 and my wife and I have been preparing together since 1990. – J.W.C., from the red hills of western Oklahoma