Cash Stash

[WizardTN]

I have been running the various scenarios thru my mind that would require needing a ready source of cash during the initial period of an emergency.
This assumes that banks are closed and ATM's are not working, for whatever reason.
It is said that one should have about $1000 stashed to get thru the first few weeks of any crisis. Even in a financial meltdown, people will still accept cash as that is what they are used to. Then reality will set in.
I have read suggestions that say you should have rolls of small denomination FRN,s salted away with rubber bands around them, to avoid flashing a big "roll" around and drawing attention.

In my murky ponderings of this, it occurs to me that "paper" may not be the best way to go.
Paper burns easily, shreds, has to dry out if left under water for any time, can be eaten by rodents, etc. etc.
I am coming to the conclusion that "coinage" would be the better way to store such a stash.
Todays CuNi dimes, quarters and halves at least have of a metal content at todays spot prices of 25 cents per $1 FV.
In a hyperinflation scenario, that should increase swiftly to the point that content value would outstrip face.
What happened with coinage in Germany when they were burning paper dollars to keep warm?

I hope you can see where I am going with this. Or am I just nuts?

Comments please.

[Nickelless]

Wizard, I think you're spot-on, but instead of an either-or scenario (FRNs, silver or copper), use all three. I'm setting aside $250 in FRNs a week and putting them in a fire-resistant safe that's rated for an 1,100-degree fire and putting it inside another metal cabinet inside a concrete block structure to multiply the fire resistance of the FRNs' paper. Most of the rest of my cash is being poured into storage food and silver. I'm not doing anything to stockpile copper at the moment because I think silver has the biggest upside and would rather have five ounces of silver than $200 worth of nickels. Once I get to about $5,000 in FRNs divided up in several different hiding places, I'm going to pour all of my available cash into silver. I'm trying to buy at least four ounces of silver a week but will ramp that up once I reach my $5,000 in FRNs. I've also got a checking account that's strictly an emergency fund for my mortgage, insurance and car payment and either I or my fiancee can schedule automatic electronic payments on the car, house or insurance from that account if for some reason I become incapicitated for a while. I've got fixed rates on the car loan and mortgage, which is a huge relief that I won't be slammed by soaring rates once Helicopter Ben's chopper comes crashing down on the markets.

[WizardTN]

OK but.
If silver goes to $100 oz it is possible to wind up in the classic situation where you want to buy an apple off a cart and the vendor cannot make change for what you offer.

[68Camaro]

OK but.
If silver goes to $100 oz it is possible to wind up in the classic situation where you want to buy an apple off a cart and the vendor cannot make change for what you offer.

pennies and nickels...

[thaler]

OK but.
If silver goes to $100 oz it is possible to wind up in the classic situation where you want to buy an apple off a cart and the vendor cannot make change for what you offer.

pennies and nickels...

I'm with Camaro on this one. Unless that apple vendor happens to be a dealer in pm's, he's gonna be looking at face value of your coins at that time, AND appreciate the fact that he doesn't have to make change for something that he may be unfamiliar with anyway.

[Nickelless]

OK but.
If silver goes to $100 oz it is possible to wind up in the classic situation where you want to buy an apple off a cart and the vendor cannot make change for what you offer.

pennies and nickels...

I'm with Camaro on this one. Unless that apple vendor happens to be a dealer in pm's, he's gonna be looking at face value of your coins at that time, AND appreciate the fact that he doesn't have to make change for something that he may be unfamiliar with anyway.

Point taken. Which is why I'm trying to start growing much of what I'll probably want in the first place. I've already got three apple trees planted and I hope to transform about one-fourth of the rest of my backyard (about a 6- by 25-foot strip along one fence) into a vegetable garden next spring. I can always barter food for food and just be resigned to doing without other things. I'm not saying I'm not going to hoard more copper (of which I have very little at the moment), I'm just saying I'm not doing much of it at the moment.

[Mossy]

I live in a rain forest with a lot of commercial fishing. The locals and the buyers needed a way to keep money from getting soaked, blown away in the wind, etc, so they started vacumn bagging set amounts of cash. Might consider that.

[Rob72830]

I am coming to the conclusion that "coinage" would be the better way to store such a stash.
Todays CuNi dimes, quarters and halves at least have of a metal content at todays spot prices of 25 cents per $1 FV.
In a hyperinflation scenario, that should increase swiftly to the point that content value would outstrip face.
What happened with coinage in Germany when they were burning paper dollars to keep warm?

I hope you can see where I am going with this. Or am I just nuts?

Comments please.

So you think clad would be worth something as money in such times? This is something I have thought about. I have some rolls of state quarters and Sac dollars that I was wondering if I should try to sell or save for hard times. Rolls of clad can be had at face instead of 40X face for silver. On my disability it would be easier to put back a couple of rolls of clad dimes and quarters than silver a month.

[Nickelless]

I am coming to the conclusion that "coinage" would be the better way to store such a stash.
Todays CuNi dimes, quarters and halves at least have of a metal content at todays spot prices of 25 cents per $1 FV.
In a hyperinflation scenario, that should increase swiftly to the point that content value would outstrip face.
What happened with coinage in Germany when they were burning paper dollars to keep warm?

I hope you can see where I am going with this. Or am I just nuts?

Comments please.

So you think clad would be worth something as money in such times? This is something I have thought about. I have some rolls of state quarters and Sac dollars that I was wondering if I should try to sell or save for hard times. Rolls of clad can be had at face instead of 40X face for silver. On my disability it would be easier to put back a couple of rolls of clad dimes and quarters than silver a month.

Rob, your best best with current coinage, if you don't want to take the time or have the equipment to sort copper pennies, is to stock up on nickels. At current metal prices, only nickels and pre-1982 pennies are worth more than their face value in metal. Or you could buy just a few silver coins a month and still have greatly-increased purchasing power even though you don't have much silver. A little silver is better than nothing at all. I sold my silver last year to help finance the purchase of my homestead, and while I've only built up a stash of about 30 ozs. of silver so far since then, now that my job situation is greatly improved since I got laid off back in April, I'm back to buying 3 to 4 ozs. of silver a week. Even if you only have one ounce of silver, that's still a lot more silver than most people have. Keep stocking up slowly but steadily and pretty soon you'll be in great shape with your PM stash.

[Rob72830]

Nickleless, thanks for the advice. I have been sorting pennies, done about 4 boxes the last couple of months and trying to buy a little silver. I suppose the 3 rolls of state quarters will buy me about 10 silver dimes. I have some other silver, in the form of proof coins that I've had a long time but now I stay away from buying the proof coins for my stash since they cost more than circulated. One silver proof dime is around $6, one circ. dime around $3. So I can buy 2 dimes for what one proof costs. Unless I can get a good deal on proof and mint sets at less than the price of silver. Thanks again for the info. I think I am going down the right path.

[AGgressive Metal]

People get annoyed with taking coins as it is, I can't imagine they'd like them very much during hyper-inflation, except the few people that understood the metal value. I'd say stick with low denomination FRNs for a cash hoard. People act like I am from mars when I spend $1 and 50-cent coins - everyone in modern America has a weird group-think normalcy bias.

[ardorlan]

I think the trend of education increase with hard times, while I think its true people try hard to keep their head in the sand. If banks didn't allow people to withdraw money, or ATM shutdown, I think people would learn what coins are worth.