Two Letters Re: Advice on Ammunition and Precious Metals for Barter?

Jim,
I read your post of 10/15 about barter items and the problems with fake gold coins. You wrote: “The other major problem with using gold coins for survival barter, regardless of their weight, is that they will be immediately suspect as counterfeit by the individual on the other side of the table.”

You are quite correct, but an easy and affordable solution is available. Please note that I am not a salesman for this product nor affiliated with the company in any way. I am simply someone who has been working on preparedness for 40 years and have found this product valuable.

There is a fake gold coin detection product made by Fisch Instruments. The detector, detectors really, consist of plastic fulcrums that measure the diameter, thickness, and weight of a coin. Because of gold’s unique properties, no coin can pass these three tests and be a counterfeit. (Okay, okay, they could be made out of platinum alloy or palladium, but that doesn’t seem too probable). I have had a set of these detectors for about 25 years. I am not a coin collector, I just have them in case I find myself being presented gold coins for payment for food or ammo.

I would not normally make much noise about this except the owner is closing down the business. At some point in the future, these will not be available any longer. For less money than a cheap shotgun, your readers could add to their arsenal of tools for not getting cheated is some future the normal economy has become discombobulated.

 

Mr. R.:
In response to Monsieur Anon’s comments I appreciate that gold would not be the exchange medium of choice in most WTSHTF scenarios, however, let’s not overlook the tremendous versatility of gold as a preservation of wealth for most survival situations that one would plan for. This is not mere speculation either. There is an enormous wealth (sorry!) of history supporting this position.

Gold had value before, during and after the Roman Empire. Gold had value before, during and after WWII, regardless of the country you were in. No matter what the situation (a major war, a local disaster, a government collapse, you name it) those that could dig up 20 oz of gold after the event would be better off than those that could not. Gold has maintained its worth over time. In 1900 1oz of gold was worth around $20 which was enough to buy a good suit. Today 1 oz of gold is worth around $600 and it would still buy a good suit. Okay, I didn’t exactly appreciate much but the intrinsic value was preserved. As we all know, the $20 cash did not fair as well. I don’t think the suit bought 106 years ago would have faired much better.

I can’t think of any disaster scenario where 20 ounces of gold wouldn’t be an asset. After all, you can carry 20 Krugerrands in your bug out bag (BOB) and that may be the only thing that you have between you and your family controlling your own destiny and becoming refugees. $12,000 worth of .22 ammo wouldn’t be quite so portable. It’s also easier to hide $12,000 of gold than it is to hide your other hard assets. Some of those assets may not be quite so hard after all, when looters and the government have finished.

Assuming you have first made appropriate preparations for protection, shelter, water and food, I believe there are many more survival scenarios where owning some gold coins would be more advantageous than not. IMHO, evaluating gold coins for barter in a survival scenario is like evaluating the worth of your Model 1911 pistol for deer hunting – great tool/wrong job! – Dave

JWR Replies: You are absolutely right that gold does have a place in preparedness planning. While it is suboptimal for post-TEOTWAWKI survival barter (for the reasons previously stated), it is an ideal store of wealth with “grab it and go” portability, such as in cross-border refugee situations. Silver is roughly 50 times heavier and bulkier per dollar’s worth, and hence too heavy for most investors to carry in their luggage. To illustrate my point: I recently accompanied a consulting client to both a coin show and a coin shop, to liquidate gold and silver holdings to generate cash for an upcoming retreat property purchase. In just four hours at the show the client sold $147,000 worth of gold–a mixture of slabbed (PCGS and NGC encapsulated ) mint state numismatic coins and bullion coins. (The latter were nearly all 1 ounce Krugerrands and American Eagles.) These all fit easily in a battered old black plastic Samsonite briefcase. It was heavy, but still quite portable and discreet. What a contrast the next day when we went to a coin shop to sell the silver, consisting of 54 Englehard 100 ounce bullion bars (about 385 pounds!), and nearly three full $1,000 face value bags of pre-1965 U.S. coinage. A $1,000 silver bag weighs 55 pounds. Toting the silver into the shop took three very heavy dolly (hand truck) loads, during which time we were in full public gaze. When we were unloading and stacking the bullion bars, (“clank!, clank!”), discretion was difficult. Despite its much greater weight and bulk, the sale of the silver generated less than $100,000.

As you correctly pointed out, gold is also useful as “time machine” for preserving one’s wealth from one side of a war or a currency crisis to the other. (When one’s savings would otherwise be wiped out.) To be ready for all eventualities, I recommend investing in both silver and gold. Each has it strengths for different situations. In my estimation, the priority of investing should be 1.) Retreat land and and core logistics (“Beans, bullets and band-aids “), then 2.) Silver dimes and/or quarters for barter, and then, finally, 3.) Gold bullion, in nothing larger than one ounce coins. You are right that “many more survival scenarios where owning some gold coins would be more advantageous than not.” But of course setting priorities is important.