I have a friend that has collected gold and silver for a very long time. It is his survival stash and he maintains that it will get him anything he needs when the time comes. If you are of the same persuasion please rethink this issue.
First of all, in a dire situation, I would not want to do this type of transaction unless I knew that the person I was dealing with would never track me down and rob me. Second, I would never carry it in a quantity beyond the amount of the transaction I was about to enter, and I still would not want him to know where I live.
I certainly don’t object to having a supply of precious metal in reserve but consider the follow scenario.
You would like to purchase some food with silver. The seller has food but still, it is in limited supply for him as well. If he begrudgingly agrees to sell you some it is going to be very expensive. However, he may be more willing to sell you food in a barter situation where he can obtain something he badly needs. Therefore, having prepper items to trade would be far more practical than giving up a large quantity of silver for a small amount of food. Still, using silver or gold could be advantageous if you are trying to buy a small tractor or some item that will help you survive in the long term. This will be particularly true it is a non-perishable, reusable item.
Sadly, the majority of our society is either under prepared or not prepared at all. This makes it easy for you to come up with a vast number of items that will be in demand. If you have extras of these items you are ready to barter. You could store a large quantity of just one high demand item such as a barrel of salt or sugar. But consider this; rather you are the buyer or the seller, what if the other person does not have something the other one wants. Hence, no trade is to be made. However, if in addition to your salt you have a supply of extra items to barter you will be more likely to get a deal. This will be just about anything that you can imagine that would be needed in desperate times. One way to look at this is to consider the same items you purchased for your own preparations. Those will likely be the same types of items others will be in need of as well. Additionally, this means that you will have spare items should one of yours break or wear out. Other good items that don’t take up much space could be extra nails, screws or a raft of other non-perishables that you may run out of for your own use. Just over buy on an array of items. If you don’t need them – barter away!