Gold/Silver Please Explain & Advise For TEOTWAWKI

I'm getting a small amount of money from a personal injury settlement for a bicycle accident I had a few years ago and I'm contemplating putting $3,000 or so of that money into Gold in case TEOTWAWKI happens. Only thing is I can't quite understand how in the absence of money no longer being of value as a result of TEOTWAWKI, how exactly Gold will be used as currency.
Specifically, let's say I hypothetically have several $500 Gold Coins (Pieces?). 1. How exactly will anyone know if its real or not especially if there is no "Gold Office" within hundreds of miles? 2. Let's say that the genuineness of the Gold Coins isn't an issue. How exactly do I make small purchases with it or I don't and am limited to buying say $500 worth of stuff at a time and not say $50-100?
Finally is having $3,000 in gold on hand enough to make any kind of difference in TEOTWAWKI or am I just better off keeping my money in cash for the present? Thank you for your thoughts.

 

Gold has been counterfeited with tungsten (exact same density) to the point where people will be skeptical. I'd pretty much have to dig it out of the ground myself to trust it. I'd consider junk silver for the amount of money you are talking about.

IMO the usefulness of precious metals for trade will come at two different times:

1. If/when hyperinflation makes your cash worthless
2. After the initial die offs finish and some stabilization sets in.

Personally I'd put the money in other preps or barter goods. A 25 lb bag of salt now might be worth more than a one ounce gold coin later.

 

Sorry, I'm completely unqualified to give you any kind of answer on this.

 

After the dust settles you might be able to use the coins. I'd get more tangible assets like food,clothing,ammo,ect...

 

Have cash reserves first.

If all you have to do is "escape from L.A." you want cash.

Unless you are now convinced the US is headed for financial collapse.

But judging from your location and other posts you are in LA and worried about nuclear apocalypse. I think you should be more concerned with earthquakes.

So I don't see why PM would be for you.

I think you should get out of earthquake prone rapetopia then think about PM.

 

Teotwawki for sothern California is the 8+ earthquake they're over due for.

 

Buy a Remington 870, 9mm for fun plus plenty ammo, Beans,Salt, water purifying equipment and a vest.
Oh, You'll need toilet paper and hand sanitizer. That should pretty much take up the 3K.

 

I think investing in precious metals is stupid, simply too many factors of trade between you and the "value" of the piece.

 

As far as PM's ,,,I'd just buy them hoping to make a little extra cash on them when the price goes up . But that means you may have to sit on it for years . So in those years , could you have invested that money into something else and made some money quicker ?? Quite possibly . So , when the SHTF , you'll need food , and protection , IMO , that will be the most important up front items needed , and the ability to use and aquire both . This is by no means a complete list , but it's going to be important in the begining of the collapse .

 

As stated above.
PM's are only useful in 3 situations.
Now .. if you have a network of buyers and sellers you currently deal with (or start dealing with)
During a financial crisis where your local fiat currency is experiencing hyper inflation (Before teotwawki)
and
After society starts to come back to standard commerce/trade practices.

During shtf/teotwawki? nada. Ok, maybe for identifying who's gonna get robbed at best.

Just my opinion.

 

Thanks for the info . I somehow missed the apartment dwelling aspect ..

 

Gold/Silver/Platinum are best as a stable investment that resist large devaluations and are relatively easy to cash in and out of. POst SHTF until there is some form of stabilization about the only thing gold will be good for is molding into bullets..... So lead would actually be a far better post shtf investment. Now for people with things of real value to trade it is a different matter. Starving refugee with a bag full of gold coins.......... How much of that gold would you trade for a 20 pound salt cured ham or 20 pounds of beef jerky? How much of that gold would you trade for a full box of .223s 5.56 or insert what ever ammo you need? How about a 25 pound bag of rice? Chlorine tabs for some safe water? A pair of clean underwear or pair of socks? For those set up with an abundance and the means, support and will to keep it secure collecting gold post SHTF would make a lot of sense. But pretty much worthless as a pre shtf investment beyond its inherent market stability. Personally I would advise many other things to invest in that would serve more immediate and functional purposes.

 

In TEOTWAWKI, to me, the more valuable trade items would be water filters and purifyers, blades, tools and weapons. And maybe stuff like seeds.

 

Good to have even when not TEOTWAWKI.

 

Precious metals are a compact-storage form for wealth. If you have all your other survival needs basically covered, having some PMs after TSHTF will allow you to go shopping. But you'll only be able to buy what people are selling, and only at the price they set.

The time to cover your survival bases is BEFORE the poop plops on the prop, not after.

Water, Food, Shelter, Medicals, Mobility, Defense, Tools--all that long-term survival stuff. The smart moves that are better made far too early than just a little too late.

That said, when you go shopping and spend gold, you're bartering. It's exactly the same as when you go shopping (bartering) with dollars.

"So much of THIS, for so much of THAT." The seller sets the price. You can take it or leave it, or haggle as best you can.

If you choose gold for bartering, you'll be better off with 1/10 oz coins than 1 oz coins, because you can make smaller purchases, and the seller can make change much more easily. Buying one loaf of bread (equiv. value: $3.00) is not practical with a $1,000.00 bill, even if it is made out of gold.

Likewise, you can make a small purchase without flashing Big Bucks and painting a target on your back. There are a lot of places where you can get your throat cut right now for much less than an ounce of gold, and these are the Good Ole' Days.

Someday we may all be sitting around a campfire and reminiscing about electricity and how refrigerators could make ice cubes, even in summer. And how easily you could fill them up with food...

Junk silver (silver coins) are also good for Post-SHTF shopping, as long as people have enough of what you need to be willing to part with it. You might be able to buy a shoulder of beef if the owner won't be able to use/preserve it before it spoils. Or if he has access to a whole herd of cattle and doesn't have to worry about starving.

No amount of wealth will buy you either of the only two bottles of water left in a lifeboat that won't be reaching shore any time soon. Whoever has them will keep them. And he'll have to stay awake until he drinks them, because they'll be stolen the instant he can no longer protect them by brute force.

Silver coins can be counterfeited. So can ingots and art coins (round bullion), etc.

The same for gold, only a hundred times worse.

The only silver I've never seen (or heard of) being counterfeited is sterling flatware. Granny's good silver, specifically.

Meditate on that as a store of wealth. It's useful, beautiful, every piece is hallmarked, and every piece has a catalogue weight on file somewhere, and a registered pattern. Flatware can even have an antique value above the silver content.

And, best of all, you can spend years selling off Granny's very last silver spoon (fork, knife, or whatever). And always be just a poor destitute person that wouldn't hardly even be worth robbing...

Besides which, you spent part of that $3,000.00 on something that makes loud noises when people annoy you.

The easiest insurance policy you'll ever be able to take out on gold is a gun.

 

Better off with bullets and beans