I went to a party last night... not exactly true to form for me, but, well, my friend's headed to Iraq for a year or so, and it was his "farewell" party. Of course, being ex-military and much more extroverted than myself, he has some... interesting... friends, including a few that aren't quite full-blown survivalists, but who have put some thought and preparation into what they might do should society fall apart. One in particular has, as part of his investment planning, taken to collecting gold and silver coinage to use for trade, should the need arise.
I got to thinking about it overnight... currency requires an agreed-upon standard of value, and, at first blush, precious metals seem like a no-brainer. However, to be useful for trade, there has to be enough of those materials around for all the market participants to have a pool of, in this case, coinage to draw on for their purchasing needs, with sufficient excess for sellers to make change on purchases... and a few guys with pockets full of heavy, noisy coinage just doesn't fit the bill. No, a workable currency needs something reasonably plentiful, but not excessively so, that isn't readily counterfeited... and, in a post-modern-tech society, something instantly recognizable from pre-fall days would fit the bill nicely. Also, it should be lightweight, portable, and durable, to allow transfer and use over as large an area as possible for as long a period as possible.
So, for any of you thinking about what to stockpile for trade after the fall of civilization, allow me to suggest... credit cards. Definitely lightweight and durable, made from a material that a pre-industrial society would be hard-pressed to mimic, with stamped numerals and that magnetic strip (at a minimum) to differentiate them from any other random bits of plastic that somebody might try to pass as money, credit cards are practically custom-made for the job. Almost everyone is guaranteed to have at least one to start with... and, as an added bonus, due to the grouping of numbers on the card, they're pre-marked for division into at least four sub-bits for change-making purposes, kind of like the "pieces of eight" of old. Get your local gathering of survivors to agree on the standard for trade first, then branch it out to your neighbors... odds are I won't be there to help you, since I live all too close to a military installation, but I'll be hoping for your success, from the bottom of my biohazard/radioactivity-zombified heart... :)
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The problem with anything used to represent value is that it has to have value backing it up. The reason a dollar was worth a dollar for much of America's existence was that the dollar was backed by a dollar's worth of gold sitting in Fort Knox. Now it is worth a dollar because the government promises you it is worth that much.
Silver is worth its value as silver (if people still perceive a value for that). A useless piece of plastic could be worth something only if someone is there to promise that that value is backed up. And in the aftermath, you might be better off with seed corn instead of silver.
Biohazard/radioactivity-zombified seed corn!
Matt, I totally agree with you, there has to be a perception of value for a currency to have any stability... that's been true all the way back to the original use of copper and silver coinage, where the copper had some utility value and scarcity, and the silver was desirable for its scarcity and, for lack of a better term, prettiness.
I do like the seed corn idea... excepting that it can degrade over time, and, given a handful, you can make a bunch more, so inflation's pretty much guaranteed. Copper could make a comeback, in time... supposing enough looting of ruins were to occur, or a sufficient mining source were nearby... I'm just thinking in terms of "you've got enough people together trading enough different things to make barter unwieldy, what's a workable trade instrument that a group could agree on, in sufficient quantity (and scarcity) to be useful?". If that item has intrinsic value in a post-apocalyptic world, all the better... :)
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