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I have a stash of foreign silver built up over the years that I have either found at face value (ie inside a CWR roll) or that I have found at garage sales etc. I haven't decided what to do with it yet. Which then got me to thinking....

So...I'd like to post a hypothetical situation: The economy has gotten much worse, silver is $75-$100 per ounce, unemployment is much higher and people are angrier, banks are imploding at an accelerated rate, the FED is printing fiat like there is no tomorrow and your grocery bill has more than doubled in less than 12 months time. More importantly, the average Joe has become educated and barter/trade with silver has started to increase on a noticeable basis. Also, your local coin shop (LCS) hardly ever has any US junk silver anymore and disappears within one hour of it being turned in. Hyperinflation is just around the corner and crime has started to increase.

BUT...there's that one tiny thing that's nagging at you: the average Joe doesn't have a clue when it comes to foreign silver coinage and simply stays away from it, since it's not US coinage. However, the benefit from this is that foreign silver is still available at your LCS and more importantly, is not readily recognized, especially at garage sales, flea markets, consignment shops, thrift shops etc.

What do you do?

1. Not a problem. I sold my foreign stash a long time ago for US junk silver (in any form) and ASE's, as I knew this would be a problem in the USA.
2. I trade for it immediately if I find it so that I'm not stuck with it.
3. I avoid it like the plague, since it's not US coinage.
4. I keep it. Hey, silver is still silver, right?

Also, please explain your answer. Thanks!

I've bought a pile of foreign silver. I'll love buying it. But it is sometimes difficult to sell.

So I sell as soon as is convienient and profitable, then convert to a more liquid form.

I still have a bunch to move, I would much rather have ASE's. But I never pass up a good deal on foreign. Just classify it asap so you're not stuck with a bag of mixed purity.

I've got a little Dutch and Swedish silver, but I mostly stick to Canadian quarters/halves. I figure that, while they don't have all the liquidity (at least not here in the US) that US 90% does, it is still fairly common. And, if average Joe is more educated about silver, I would assume that Canadian coinage would be a part of that education. Also, I like that Canadian 80% is a more "rounded off" .6 oz/dollar face as opposed to .715 oz/dollar face for US. Just my $.02

Hi all-

I agree with what's already been said, and add that there are no "rules" for SHTF, and I seriously doubt that any refiner or shop, in a hyperinflation scenario, is going to say to someone "Ah, silver is $1200/oz, but these coins aren't .999 fine, get the hell out of my store." They'll sit down and figure it out quite easily. You may not get top dollar, but hopefully you didn't pay full melt when you bought them, and if so, what's the dang difference @ $1200/oz!?

I'd be a LOT more wary buying miscellaneous size "loaf" bars of silver, if anything.

While I wouldn't make the BULK of my holdings foreign, If you get it for a good price I'd just hang on to it. Same thing goes for culls, though I'd rather have just plain worn or holed culls than bent or damaged. All silver will have the last laugh.

That said, I'm selling some Canadian silver in the BIN section!!!!!! ( I want to buy something non-coin related)

wags

HPMBTT wrote:So...I'd like to post a hypothetical situation: The economy has gotten much worse, silver is $75-$100 per ounce, unemployment is much higher and people are angrier, banks are imploding at an accelerated rate, the FED is printing fiat like there is no tomorrow and your grocery bill has more than doubled in less than 12 months time.

In other words, in 2012, perhaps this coming spring... Glad you're thinking ...

Fair market value is what buyer and seller agree to. You just need to find a buyer willing to pay what you want, or you are willing to part with it for what the buyer is willing to pay. Be prepared to prove it's really silver to the grocery owner.

Around here, ASE's fetch top dollar, but in a SHTF scenario I think holding 90% will go farther in buying things like groceries.

Sheikh_yer_Bu'Tay wrote:Fair market value is what buyer and seller agree to. You just need to find a buyer willing to pay what you want, or you are willing to part with it for what the buyer is willing to pay. Be prepared to prove it's really silver to the grocery owner.

Around here, ASE's fetch top dollar, but in a SHTF scenario I think holding 90% will go farther in buying things like groceries.

In a SHTF senario its going to be hard to find a buyer who will pay what you want. A refiner may not even be in business and if they are they will probably rape you on the fees because they need it just as much as you do.

If you are prepping for a SHTF senario I would trade in everything to recognizable stuff.

Recognizable to who? I'd say most of my associates don't even know US coins used to be minted in silver much less what an ASE is.

I am from a troubled part of the world and have been deployed to troubled parts of the world, pre current wars. What I found was people used paper money and life went on. Commerce started up very rapidly, even on a very local level. If the local currency was crap they resorted to foreign. If they were under siege, the local government printed up something. Sure, people bartered but the paper was everywhere. Two lessons I have learned are that 1) people want something easy, and that's paper, at least for day to day trading; and 2) Government is very resilient and will form even if it's three guys in an Andy Gump surrounded by murderous enemies. That government will print paper money and everyone will use it. Barring a cataclysm, like an asteroid impact, things will go on as usual is what I think. What do I mean by that. I mean that even in a shtf scenario the liquid and sophisticated buying and selling or metals will continue and most people will just have the paper money the government prints to spend.

To me the metals are a possible store of value not an alternative currency for future uncertainty.

Don't forget about cigarettes and alcohol as alternative currency.

silverflake wrote:Don't forget about cigarettes and alcohol as alternative currency.

never....its all part of the plan, the tobacco, i might nip, but i dont like booze, so i'm the perfect seller. Now, opiates.....ummmm, i got to be careful of, dont wanna be my best customer.

"3. I avoid it like the plague, since it's not US coinage."

i'm American, i was born in America, i will probably die in America, and i hate explaining, coz 'explaining means discount, and in every trade situation, i want to have the upper hand, the strong hand. To me, foreign silver is the weak hand, the explaining, the dreaded discount. If i make an offer, i want to be prepared to walk away should i get any pushback, or counteroffer i dont like. and to walk away in a cold hearted second.

i stay away from foreign silver, and that means canadian as well.

Does anybody consider that when the economy improves that would push up silver? Being that industrial use and would raise it's demand.

I had a huge stash of foreign silver. I made a decision to liquidate my holdings and turn the proceeds into 90% US junk silver. Like Thogey has said in his entry into this thread. I found it quite hard to sell my foreign silver. I have been lucky to sell some to members of this blog site. I just recently traded the last of my silver, an amount of over 25 troy ounces to a person on another coin/metal website for the same amount of US junk silver. I did so for the ease of liquidity. But if things get as bad as in your scenario, silver will be the form of currency. In ANY form!

Gotta have some of it all! RCM, Banco de Mexico and Perth ( just in case I end up on a beach in Aussie land).
A good whiskey stash is also important