How would silver be used....

Thanks so much everyone for the helpful information...and, quiltingsando, love your sense of humor....

melt it down to bullets so when you go hunting the vampires stay dead. LOL

Your question shows how little understanding there is today about economics. Please don't think I am insulting you, because I am not. The fact that you are interested says a lot for you.

Most people know what barter is. I trade something of mine for something of yours that I want. That's simple enough. Now, wouldn't it be easier if we could trade something that had a definite value, was non perishable, easily divisible, and had great value in a small quantity? And that is what we call money.

Federal reserve notes are NOT money, they are currency. Originally they carried the promise to pay in "lawful money". Eventually, our politicians changed the promise to the statement: "This note is legal tender for all debts public and private". The politicians made frns legal tender, but they can't make them money, since they have no intrinsic value.

So where does gold and silver get their value? The same place coffee beans, computers, plywood, digital cameras and gasoline get theirs: the market. There are people who want gold or silver for a specific purpose. Because there are people who want these commodoties, they have intrisic value.

If someone offered to sell you 3 chords of firewood for $25, even if you didn't have a wood burning stove, you know that you could easily make a $300 profit on the firewood. So, wouldn't you buy the wood?

Now, in the case of gold and silver, when a mint (government or private) coins the metal into pieces of guaranteed weight and purity, we have the ideal commodity to facilitate trade. And that's all money is. It is a commodity that meets the qualifications for money: easily divisible, portable, non perishable, great value in a small amount.

Money does not derive its value from government. Its value is based on the fact that someone wants it.

So getting back to your question, how do you use silver: let's say that I am a barber, and you need a haircut. You offer me a half ounce of silver for a haircut. I accept. Then you go to the store and buy 2 pounds of coffee, a gallon of milk, and a loaf of bread. You offer the grocer another half ounce of silver, and he accepts.

Now, what is going to get people to accept gold and silver? The same thing that has made them money for thousands of years. People know that they have value. At this point in time, they don't really know how to figure the value of gold and silver, but they will learn. As they see the perceived value of federal reserve notes decrease every time the politicians attempt to "stimulate" the economy with newly printed frns, they will look for a more stable vehicle to maintain value.

Gold and silver are the best commodities people have been able to come up with. Paper money (that is not redeemable in gold or silver) has not intrinsic value, and it's only a matter of time before criminal politicians crank up the printing presses.

You don't have to wait for the economy to colapse, you can start using silver for trading right now. Go to a local farmer's market and trade silver for food products, Give a waiter or waitress a tip with a silver quarter, half dollar, or silver dollar. In this way you are already starting to educate people who free trade really works.

Silver and gold are stable storages of wealth...so if we have a hyperinflation situation, you could sell one coin at a time for whatever currency is used, then use that currency short term to keep yourself alive before the currency inflates again.

Silver is also very useful that it is transportable...say if the US were collapsed, but Austrialia was humming along well, you could take your family down under and have a source of value to get yourself started somewhere else.

If we were to have a serious economic breakdown, we may be back to barter/trade. If you could purchase more food than you could store with a single coin, you could buy it and trade some of that food with someone else who has something that you need. It wouldn't be an easy lifestyle, for sure, but at least you'd have something with value to start with.

Suppose we have inflation but the government gets it under control before the dollar crack-up. Then there will still be dollars as currency but at a fraction of today's value. Under those circumstances, your silver will be exchangable for many more of the devalued dollars than you paid for it because the silver will hold value while the dollar lost value. So you just sell your silver for dollars and spend the dollars.

Suppose we have a crack-up and the dollar is destroyed. The market will quickly establish a new currency because barter is so inefficient. Things like cigarettes, ammo, jewelry, and gold and silver coins and bars are the likely choices. In that case you use your silver as money to exchange for things you need.

Suppose the government circulates a NEW currency after the dollar collapses. As soon as the new currency stabilizes against other world currencies and commodities, it will have a known exchange value against gold and silver (it may even BE gold of silver backed). Then you sell your gold and silver for the new currency and spend that.

The only scenario that might interfere is if the government outlaws use and ownership of gold and silver. Then you will use it as money in the black market.