re: Physical cash on hand

quote:

---

In a general societal breakdown type of scenario I'd think guns, ammo, water and food would be most valuable. Maybe even some silver and gold.

---

Guns to an extent, but as a societal good, guns are probably overstocked to the point that they wouldn’t be hard to come by. Each person only needs a couple, and keeping a known stockpile would make you an target. The smart play would be to use them to arm your friends and family (creating a group is task #1 in SHTF), not to use them in trade. Ammo is vastly under stocked in a SHTF scenario. Food, water, medicine would obviously be huge. A bit more under the radar, but I read an article years ago from a survivor in I believe Bosnia that said that disposable cigarette lighters were extremely valuable as trade items because they are small, non perishable, relatively inexpensive, and extremely useful. Basically the non lethal top tier trade equivalent of ammo.