Is anyone seeing a place for Copper as a currency for a possible SHTF scenario?
Thanks

quote:

Is anyone seeing a place for Copper as a currency for a possible SHTF scenario?

No, not really.
At ~ $2.25/lb you need pretty much of it to have much value right now.
Gold and silver coins do much better than copper for trading and holding value.

Copper is a currency for tweekers. They'll steal every bit of it out of a house they can to buy meth. But, that about all I've seen about it lately.

I'll trade you with bags of salt.

I cannot agree with these guys- it is absolutely a good SHTF item. I keep mine in jackets around lead cones stuffed into brass holders.

I have at least $20 worth that way.

Dunno, I do keep all of my pre 1982 pennies JIC

I also keep old copper pennies. I don't know why but I do.

In all fairness, I never even thought of the $/ lb on copper but yikes. lol

I was not asking the question of a "First Rodeo" guy. I do appreciate the comments of gold and silver

In my OP I should have stated that if the price of gold goes to 5-10K per oz and silver is at 1/35th, would copper be useful as a vehicle for small purchases.?

I know that salt is more viable now, but was just asking for the future

Be well

Copper would be way, way, WAY down on the list of stuff I'd worry about.

Food, liquor, fabric/clothing, medication/first aid supplies, gasoline, batteries, tools, hardware/building supplies, ammo/reloading supplies, seeds, gold/silver, books, health/fitness, education/training/skills, etc. are much bigger priorities.

Once you have all you'd ever need of all of those, then you might think about stuff like saving up old pennies to possibly melt down for scrap copper.

Back when I was lurking on a couple different "prepper" forums over a decade ago, I used to chuckle at the guys who bragged about having garages slap full of buckets of copper pennies, like it was going to be this huge advantage after some sort of societal collapse.

It will be super abundant, and already has very little value. Every house has hundreds of pounds of Cu in it and office buildings and malls tons.

Trust me I'm an electrician, I know where to find it if SHTF. Not sure what I'd do with it, but I could harvest it all day.

Seems to me the most useful "hard currency" in a true SHTF scenario has got to be ammo, .22LR and 9mmP would be the most generally useful, but any common calibers would be better than the equivalent current value in metals.

Knowing how to shape copper into useful items has value.

quote:

Originally posted by architect:
Seems to me the most useful "hard currency" in a true SHTF scenario has got to be ammo, .22LR and 9mmP would be the most generally useful, but any common calibers would be better than the equivalent current value in metals.

agreed

and TP
tampons
booze
cigs
coffee
chocolate

stuff like that

people want a finished / useful / hard-to-find product not the raw material

what is the average person going to do with a pound of raw copper??

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Wouldnt even trade you a single square of toilet paper for a pound of copper.

Take a look at the hard to find items now. TP, alcohol, guns.

Bic lighters will be very popular and fetch a good price.

After a catastrophe, people don't want to trade Gold, Silver, copper etc. for whatever good they have. They want a tangible good they need and can use like food.

Personally I find collecting Gold or Silver a pretty silly principle, because they have very little real world use or need in the manufacturing sector......

What do you value now? I mean, the current times seem to be essentially what many a foil hatter has worried about for decades.

The metals I've been collecting are for putting me in the ground if no other funding is available to those that might want to pay for such things. If there is some left over for them to do as the please afterward so be it.

Copper just doesn't figure into storing value efficiently.

Bah.

Items of value with be Midol, tampons, feminine products, things of that nature.

Don't believe me?

Just think of how it will be having to live with the ladies when SHTF.

You WILL want peace and quiet in the boonker.

OK I'm just kidding, but think about it, LOL.

Better add some more liquor to this list.

quote:

Originally posted by Ryanp225:
Bic lighters will be very popular and fetch a good price.

You can add to that old fashioned kitchen matches, the strike anywhere kind. Failing that, the hurricane matches and their containers.

Bic aren't the most durable but they are cheap and plentiful. Now. When the SHTF, lighters with larger fuel capacity would be an advantage. My hoard () consists of a box of very large DJEEP brand lighters. No real reason other than that I have them, the flame adjust goes from tiny to welding, and you can see the fuel level at a glance because they're clear. Pick the features you want or like.

quote:

Originally posted by jljones:
Copper is a currency for tweekers. They'll steal every bit of it out of a house they can to buy meth. But, that about all I've seen about it lately.

Could not say it any better.
The same for our area .