I read on a housing article somewhere that as a result of the economic downturn and the loss of jobs many Amish find to be suitable that many Amish are turning back to more traditional ways. More as a way to cope with less income than anything else, as I recall. The cost of their insurance seems kind of high if they never use it but are always paying in.

That's both amazing and slightly hard to believe about people smoking tree leaves in Sarajevo. That would be an interesting link to read.

Gallo said, "Gold and silver are hard to come buy in our current society. "

Are you kidding us? That stuff is all over the place, buckets and buckets full in many stores, houses and pawn shops. You can even find it in the change you get back when you're shopping or when you get half-dollar JFK coins at the bank.

Those other things are what's hard to come by, the Swiss franc & the Euro – I've never seen one and I've sifted through some small piles of foreign paper currency before while waiting to give someone a ride home. Some people say they are worthless unless your a person with a lot of extra money to try and shuffle around before all the fiat currencies go to zero.
A two Dollar bill is easier to come by than those, and some people act shocked when I use a two Dollar bill to buy something by saying, "I didn't know they made those anymore."

Jarhead said, "After saying all of that I believe that if someone is fighting for their survival they will be far less petty and  worry less about being screwed and more about attaining something they need to survive."

I don't know about that,… yes and no, maybe. I guess it depends on how many of your neighbors are growing and selling potatoes too, how good of a crop there is and how desperate the buyers are?
If a person has a choice between two potato sellers, even if the situation is desperate, because it might be their only purchase for awhile they make look the potato over a bit more than usual?

Lifeboat ethics, eck, I think another phrase for that is situational ethics, a.k.a. the ends justifies the means, and that's a bad way to survive, imho.

Reminds me of the book, Alive based on a real life example of people surviving a plane crash in the Andes Mountains. I think that was on the border of Argentina? Looks like they even made a film about it too.

raymond673 said, "British Pound Sterling – Brittan refused to lock on to the Euro, it is
good now that they have'nt wiht all the problems it is having. They are
one of the few remaining countries backed by an assett – Gold &
Silver."

Uh, No, the British Pound Sterling is Not backed by gold or silver... This was abandoned on 21 September 1931, during the Great Depression

None of the fiat currencies of the world today are backed by gold or silver, the Swiss Franc was the last one to stop sometime in the 1970's. The only thing backing a fiat currency today is hot air, and military hardware.

I wish I could find the links, twinedog but those bartering centers didn't fair well. However, like a story I read about residents in Chicago who set up used goods tables of useless junk no body wanted to buy, they did so for social interaction. Something to do on the cheap and a reason to interact with others. More fun than a deck of cards?

Great input k2d2b, and an interesting observation.

They would certainly have no use for a small hunk of metal or a piece of paper with numbers on it.  Not at least initially when TEOTWAWKI starts.

That certainly depends on a lot of things…

Was pre-WWII Asian currency a fiat currency? That might explain why it wasn't wanted.

Was this trading done on a tropical island inhabited by a population consisting mostly of farmers isolated and cut off from the rest of the world much like the people of Germany were cut off and restricted before and during WWII? Was industrial output controlled and directed by goberment for the war effort or build-up?
Lack of a demand for metal suggests there was very little in the way of accessible industrial output or civilization.

And without industrial production, how is the fertilizer, the tools and the equipment made? It was likely cannibalized from existing supply or smuggled in… imported. A Gaza-like setting?

I think there's a huge difference between three main threats: an economic collapse, a sealed off war time situation, and TEOTWAWKI.

The key with metals is trading with the world – with those who create things people want – and trading with savers (eggs don't save well for very long) while at the same time avoiding goberment interference.

Somehow I suspect the men who made pots and pans would welcome a sheet of aluminum or copper no matter which setting they were in. And, once the occupying Japanese army was driven out, there was a return to using money… I wonder if the value of what was previously traded suddenly lost a lot of value once the occupying army was removed and replaced by an army that allowed trade to take place and at that point the value of metal shot up?
 Or was it a backward area that to this day places a low value on metals? I imagine such places exist, but I don't know of any, not sure I'd want to stay in one either.

Even the horseback riding Mongolians of today mine for gold.

It appears that metal has less value when goberment imposes restrictions on trade.

In k2d2b's example, I imagine the people on the coast who imported the fuel or tools used by the farmers accepted "a small chunk of metal" or even the right kind of paper with numbers on it. I find it hard to imagine a people who could trade with the world yet didn't accept metal, or paper, how would they buy the fuel to import it to sell to the farmers? Were they also mostly egg exporters?

The question seems to be three-fold: what & who makes things worthless and is TEOTWAWKI a war time lock-down prison setting where trade and liberty are restricted, or is it an opening to freely trade with those around you? Big Big difference, don't you think?

Because at the exact same time halfway round the world my grandmother out in the countryside was saving gold and silver coins and taking them as trade for her chickens, eggs and what-have-you. It appears that the only difference between the two grandmothers was the degree of goberment imposed restrictions and how long it lasted.

The consequences of perfecting goberment imposed restrictions.

Remember (in the 1990's?) before the smoking ban swept much of the world when some of the bits of conversation about smoking were, "is second-hand smoke dangerous?" This, "article" is along the same lines, is it step one towards banning cooking chicken and eggs at home and/or imposing more goberment restrictions resulting in a lower value and price for chickens and eggs? A lot of struggling restaurant owners might support such a move:

Can home cooking be hazardous to your health?

ATLANTA – Could your kitchen at home pass a restaurant inspection?

New researcher suggests that at least one in seven home kitchens would flunk the kind of health inspection commonly administered to restaurants…

The study, released Thursday, is believed to be one of the first to offer a sizable assessment of food safety in private homes. But the researchers admit the way it was done is hardly perfect…

In 2006, the county health department began a home kitchen self-inspection program, designed to help consumers learn how to store and prepare food safely. The department also began offering an online quiz with 45 yes or no questions that simulates a restaurant inspection checklist…

(Voluntary at first, just as it was with non-smoking restaurants.)

But experts believe the bulk of food poisonings are unreported illnesses from food prepared at home.

(Did they kind of hint, "in an effort to cut health care costs, and to protect individuals from themselves"? If the past is any kind of example, this will be followed by CCTV in kitchens to make sure, and hefty fines? Yes, it's crazy, but so was "the bailout" but they did it anyway. And the phrase, "private property" has new meaning these days.)

The study is being published in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, a publication of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.