Introduction

Recently, a group of us had a meeting on using alternative currencies (e.g. local trade dollars or silver coins) to stimulate the local economy and hedge against the possibility of hyper inflation. In writing up his report of the meeting, Lincoln Justice asked me to send him a link describing how trading with junk silver (pre-1965 US Silver coins) or US-minted silver rounds (post-1985 Silver American Eagles or "SAE") works. I quickly discovered that no such single page exists (or I cannot find it). This article is an attempt to gather some of the relevant information in one place.

This article will not get in-depth about how junk-silver trading fits into a wider system. I expect Lincoln Justice's article to cover those issues. Here we are just talking about how trading/bartering in silver coin works.

Please note that I am not a lawyer or a tax attorney. When I make statements about legality, I am working on my good-faith, best-knowledge of the law and the processes I describe represent my good-faith efforts at complying with a complicated and confusing system. But given that caveat, trading in junk silver can solve one facet of the currency needs we identified in our recent meeting and is a practice I currently recommend; always do your own investigation and make your own decisions.

[Release Version 1.3 - Complete release with updates.]