Does the 21st century have a re-wind button? Starting over, without the bankers bail-outs could be the solution (and vigorously prosecuting criminal fraud, no matter who’s doing it).

OK..I have a question for you. I can’t seem to find anyone who knows what to do.
I have a bag of 40% silver Kennedy coins.
Let’s say the worst happens and the $ becomes worthless.
Let’s say I need to buy food to survive.
I need to know HOW to trade one of those 40% silver coins into groceries?
I can’t imagine offering the coin at the checkout counter of the groc. store.
They would view it as a 50 cent piece.
The bank doesn’t deal in precious metals. My coin would be worth 50 cents to them.
The cost of mailing it to someone would be cost-prohibitive.
My neighbor is in the same dilemma as I am.
What is the solution? To whom do I go to to get the best deal coin by coin?
I bought the coins for such an emergency, but need to know HOW to trade the coin for groceries, or paying bills, or gassing up the car.
Surely, someone reading this, with all their silver and gold coins tucked away, they know how they are going to turn their precious coins into buying power. Thank you.

Ed Note: You missed the point about your coins. They have a direct exchange value. You will find grocery stores accept them. What else would they accept? But don’t be alarmist – you will never, ever be in this position in the US. However, your silver coin bag will almost definitely be worth ten times what it is today.

For an unbelievable graphic on the history of US home sales, go here:
http://www.caseyresearch.com/sites/default/files/House%20Sales_2.jpg
You won’t believe what you see!

@ Tiu:
Your remarks echo my sentiments exactly!

In the great, grand scheme of this universe, I’ve often thought about how badly humans have screwed up this world for humanity in general. This is especially applicable over the last few years, and I wonder if the Creator is “tempted” to just hit the RE-SET button.

@ Tiu
You ain’t seen nothing yet, my friend. During this century, the petroleum age that has enabled the most rapid increase in the standard of living in human history, will come to an end. We have been using more oil than we have been finding for about the last 40 years. Oil runs all ships, most railroad locomotives (especially those that transport raw materials from mines in countries like Australia), all large intercity trucks, all the farm tractors that produce the grain that goes into the global food trade, all aircraft (I heard a statistic that the global economy would instantly shrink by 10% without air travel), over 90% of personal vehicles, still heats millions of homes, and cooks (propane, butane) a significant percentage of the food people eat.
Last night, I once again stayed up way too late watching CNBC World from Asia. They were interviewing some expert, ‘big thinker’ Asian gentleman who said that the price of oil will eventually hit $500 a barrel. They asked him how soon it would happen, and what fuel will be substituted for oil, when it gets that expensive. He said, “I can’t tell you if it will be in 10, 20, or 30 years, but after that, we will be rubbing sticks together.”
Running out of oil will not be the first severe problem humanity will soon encounter. Running out of MONEY to pay for the oil will be. And although a significant amount of oil remains in the ground after an oil field is abandoned, eventually you reach a point when you use more energy to get the remaining oil out, than you get from the oil you produce. Many large oil fields are not too many years from that point.
Fortunately, the abundance of natural gas can probably prevent total economic collapse, but nothing can ever replace the concentrated energy content of cheap, convenient, crude oil. It is the most useful thing ever found. Life won’t be as easy without it.

Apparently, my question asking how to transfer my 40% silver coins into groceries or gas appears to be a ‘hot potato’ and no one seems to have an answer. Many people write in that they have cans and jars of buried silver or gold coins for future use. Great! I believe that silver at some time in the wild future will be worth ‘ten times’ it’s value.. BUT… How do you turn that 50 cent 40% silver coin into ‘ten times’ it’s value?
The grocery stores I use would ONLY give face value (50 cents) for the 40% silver coin and there is no way in my community that they would consider giving ten times the face value of the coin.

So, I’ll ask again to ‘those in the know’. If YOU have stashed away silver or gold coins and the time arises whereby they are worth ‘ten times their value’… HOW are you going to turn them into ‘ten times their value’? Thank you. F.

Ed Note: You go to a coin shop and sell them. The world is not going to end. But the price of silver will go up and up.

@ Frances Smith, The Great Alarmist:
I just saw your two remarks on this blog for the first time; don’t be an alarmist! While the situation here in the US may get bad, it will be far better than in most other countries. Additionally, you hold physical coins, while millions of others do not; so look at the cup as being “half full” rather than being “half empty.”

Your question is certainly not a “hot potato”, your dilemma is certainly not a dilemma (if the dark scenario you paint comes to the US, which I strongly doubt, millions of Americans would wish they had done as you have done… so they are the ones who have the dilemma, not you!), and your solutions are rather easy to map out. But you have to realize that, no matter what the future holds, your silver coins will always be valuable to those who recognize its value, while the fiat paper money may not.

First, you ought to re-read the Editor’s remarks, because it’s good advice.

Second, physical gold and silver (as well as other physical assets) will always have value, while paper money may eventually have no value (e.g. Zimbabwe). But if you show your coins to a street beggar, they certainly won’t know the true value of your coins; so why interact with those (e.g. the clerk at the grocery store) who are ignorant of the coins’ value? As for banks, their seasoned bank officers certainly would know of the coins’ value, but they’ll cheat you, since cheating is their profession.

Third, as you know, whenever a person wishes to trade something, the benefit of that “trade” goes to the person who knows more about the true worth of both items. In the case of your coins, coin dealers and experienced investors will value your coins more than the clerk at the grocery check-out counter.

Some Simple Advice:
You’d be wise to built up a relationship with a dealer whom you can trust, and with whom you can “trade” coins. There are reputable coin dealers and there are crooks, just like in any business; so you have to be careful. In my case, I live in California, but I do not trust CA coin dealers that I’ve met; but there’s a coin dealer in Louisiana whom I trust. If you wish, I could give you my dealer’s email address/web address.

Transporting physical coins via registered mail is easy and relatively inexpensive (e.g. the USPS has specific sized boxes that can be used to ship this stuff at a fixed low rate, no matter how much the box weighs). You must check this out and become familiar with those box sizes. A reputable coin dealer will give you a great price for your coins, and he’ll make 3% or 4% when he trades those coins to others. So look upon that small amount as your cost of doing business with him.