You are right. The tv series Jericho (on Netflix). Is a great demonstration of post apocalyptic recovery. And the town's asset WAS a salt mine !!!

I contend that the reason Ghandi was shot is because a wise fellow in India reasoned it out and understood that there would no longer be any toilet paper.

I delight in your reasoning... couldn't agree with you more!

Dried leaves or moss will serve quite nicely.

A slightly quirky idea, but what about....salt? Unless you are near the ocean, it's hard stuff to find from natural sources. Not only is it an essential nutrient, is it indispensible for curing meats and has other uses that would be essential following an economic meltdown. It is also non-perishable, and NO ONE is going to confiscate a couple of bags of water softener salt or similar.

Not as portable as gold or silver, but still, an item of value which draws its value from utilitarian purposes.

Roman soldiers were once paid in salt. "Salarium", from which the English word "Salary" originates.

Knowledge may be the most secure exchangeable commodity. There is no limit to the amount that can be stored, provided you go to the effort to acquire it. And the number of people who have never bothered with the effort is astonishing.

I realized this not long ago when I had a flat tire on my 14 year old car, which has been in my possession for just over four years. When I removed the jack and spare, I discovered that neither had ever been used before. There was no air in the "donut" (I carry a 12 volt compressor, so little problem there--and my bad for never checking).

Surely the previous owner had had flat tires--everyone does. But he'd never changed a tire. Presumably he got out his phone and called whoever provided "road service". The thought never occurred to me--I grew up in the country before the age of cell phones and flat tires were part of life.

A simplistic example, but at least one person out there paid people to change tires for him (some to think of it, I once knew a woman who refused to learn to pump her own gas). I'd bet that most of us have more significant skills than that.

Until you start playing with specialty shells. Flechette rounds, tracers, incendiary rounds - all were available at the last gun show I went to. ;)

Oh, I agree. But as we saw with the run on .22 ammo, I'd say that might be a decent place to start...

And my father, born in 1912 to a Texas ranch family, claimed use of corn cobs (not dried, I hope!) if the S&R catalog ran out....!!!! TMI

Bullets. They're one of those "can't live with 'em, can't live without 'em" kind of commodities... ;)

Seriously, though. You want something that has persistent value. Value is derived from needs and wants. So start from Maslow's Hierarchy and go from there.

Life => protection. This is where bullets come in.
Shelter. Pretty straightforward.
Water => filters and collection/access.
Fire => fuel sources for heat/cooking. Amount may vary based on climate.
Food => fuel for the body/mind. Especially non-perishables with long shelf life. If you don't know what these are, ask a "prepper".

Everything else.

Excellent. The problem I had is we were in the kitchen, the weapons were in the bedroom. We had no access, they "got the drop on us" and we could not get to them. The only answer is to wear your weapon all the time, concealed, which few of us do at home, in the kitchen, after dinner, doing the dishes. There are occassions when they can yell: "Gotcha!"

Adding this - just because...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KvO-8Iv...

100% agree. It is much cheaper than a funeral, especially if it is your own.

the gold and silver in our safe deposit box seems
to be immune from hacking. . we hope. -- j

I would recommend not only keeping it small in physical size, but keeping it in more than one location. Indeed, keep one small "stash" you can "give up" if you are ever pressed into giving it away, and keep the others separated by some distance. Yes, burial containers if need be, near natural landmarks, and keep the map in your head.

FDR's order had a prominent loophole: it allowed personal ownership of gold for "collector's purposes". In practice, this meant there was no problem owning gold as long as the value of the gold content in a coin was worth more than 110% of its face value. And of course, the purchase and sale of jewelry has never been restricted.

No way of knowing whether that loophole would exist in a future law, of course, but to my knowledge, while FDR's "law" was in effect, no individual was ever prosecuted for owning gold.

I dont trust the banks at all nowadays