Greetings fellow hoarders. I have not posted for several years, but am back. My three sons are now grown up a bit which affords me a little time to maybe start sorting/searching again.
One thought I have had for some time is that hoarding precious metals in order to profit for one's self is only part of the story. While sorting pennies several years ago, I told my kids that years from now the United States will not exist as it does today, if at all. Little or none of it's language, culture and the like will endure as it was in its glory. However, similar to the Great Empires of the past (Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Ottoman, etc.) its coinage will retain worth commensurate with the value of the metal in it.
In light of this, one way of approaching building a hoard of copper, silver and gold is to not only look toward handing it down to the next generation, but also to teach them to add to it by sorting and training their children as well. After a few hundred years the heirs may be able to live off of the accumulated wisdom.