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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   3325 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for March 26, 2023

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Do you think coins would be valued in a post-apocalyptic world? I don’t think dollar bills would be, but I could see coins still being used as a medium of exchange. People like shiny metal.

Which coins? Gold seems too relatively rare now to be used for small transactions, copper too common to hold much value. Some preppers like "junk silver", solid silver quarters and dimes and such which predate the debasing of the metal content. Those might work.

I was thinking of more common coins like nickels, dimes, and quarters. Even post apocalypse, assuming some semblance of society returns, I would expect the return of a monetary system. It might take some time to get there. The first few years after a nuclear winter or devastating pandemic would be absolute chaos, but once an equilibrium re-forms, people will need to trade again. And coins are a lot easier to use than say shells or giant stones:

https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2011/02/15/131934618/the-island-of-stone-money

I could be totally wrong. Maybe people no longer trade because everyone is too busy killing each other for valuable resources.

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