What do you think would be the main post-apocalyptic currency?

[legend of duty]

In this scenario, it is a decade after the apocalypse so most survivors formed communities by now.

I don't think that ammo would be it as most hunting would use bows or traps; hunting with guns would be limited to bolt action rifles or shotguns which generally don't need a lot of ammo at one time as the shells and hulls can be reloaded. I think that alcohol would be a pretty reliable means of exchange for its recreational and medicinal applications. Also individual bottles would carry different values based on its quality as opposed to ammo which only interests the person that has a firearm that happens to use it.

 

[Foolery]

Sex. Just saying. You can pay me...with your body.

But yeah, you're probably right. Ammo. Weapons. Food. Clothing. Fuel and petrol products, perhaps. Basically anything that can help you survive. I doubt there'd be much of any main currency, just more bartering of material goods.

 

[Elfgore]

No currency, only bartering of every kind. Food for clothing, ammo for medicine, etc. Some greedy people may want gold, but the value is lost anyway.

 

[JoJo]

After the initial bartering which has already been mentioned, I would imagine gold, silver and precious gems would become popular for high value transactions. They may be functionally useless but they're relatively scarce, pretty to look at and crucially easy to carry around, hence why ancient civilisations tended to adopt them as a basis for currency.

 

[dyre]

After the initial bartering which has already been mentioned and alongside the precious metals/gems currency that was also mentioned, I think it might be possible that survivor settlements would settle on a certain set of bartered goods that would be convenient to trade and useful for almost everyone (aka reliable value). These goods would have many of the same characteristics that make paper currency popular today (easy to carry, difficult to reproduce, and useful for numerous/critical purposes), and would probably become pseudo-currencies.

Some examples include "old world" batteries (to power old tech), water purification tablets/filtration units, salt or other preservatives, antibiotics/multivitamins[footnote]not too useful in modern life, but a balanced diet is harder in the apocalypse[/footnote]/other medicine, maybe handheld radios. I imagine a number of other products that fall under a "we can sort-of reproduce this but the old world version is just so much better" description might become pseudo-currencies too, though I don't know what those will be. Maybe metal wire? Duct tape? Red bull and protein bars?

 

[shootthebandit]

Sex. Just saying. You can pay me...with your body.

I was gonna say this with all seriousness. Its actually pretty plausible given the circumstances

Tools, food, building materials and the biggest one would be water. Given that its a nuclear apocolypse Id imagine clean radiation free water would be pretty sought after. Crude distilleries for clean water/alcohol would be useful commodities too painkillers, antibiotics. Opiates, cannabis and cocaine would be sought after (rare, recreational and good painkillers).

Im surprised noone has mentioned tobacco either considering its a useful commodity in prison and it would be a rare luxury item in this case too

 

[shootthebandit]

Some examples include "old world" batteries (to power old tech)

Copper (pennies) and zinc (nails, screws etc) plus an electrolyte (near enough anything) would make a pretty crude but effective battery

AC power wouldnt be too hard to generate with a simply generator but then its a case of turning the generator which requires some sort of fuel

 

[dyre]

Some examples include "old world" batteries (to power old tech)

Copper (pennies) and zinc (nails, screws etc) plus an electrolyte (near enough anything) would make a pretty crude but effective battery

AC power wouldnt be too hard to generate with a simply generator but then its a case of turning the generator which requires some sort of fuel

Try putting that into your Maglite flashlight, lol. I have no doubt that homemade batteries will become widespread almost immediately, as well as conversion kits to allow their use with old technology, but I think for a few years before homemade tech can rival old world tech, there will be a fairly reliable market for batteries to power fancy old world technology.

Im surprised noone has mentioned tobacco either considering its a useful commodity in prison and it would be a rare luxury item in this case too

While I have no doubt tobacco, drugs, and sex will enjoy an active market in 2033, I don't think their demand is consistent enough to use as a currency. People generally like their currencies to highly valued wherever they go; tobacco and drugs suffer from demand inconsistency while sex suffers from supply inconsistency (if the settlement already has this service, supplier cannot ask for a high price).

Of course, you might run into a settlement built around a functioning Duracell plant and find that they have no need for batteries at all, but that's a lot less likely than running into a settlement with a few prostitutes.

 

[shootthebandit]

While I have no doubt tobacco, drugs, and sex will enjoy an active market in 2033, I don't think their demand is consistent enough to use as a currency. People generally like their currencies to highly valued wherever they go; tobacco and drugs suffer from demand inconsistency while sex suffers from supply inconsistency (if the settlement already has this service, supplier cannot ask for a high price).

Of course, you might run into a settlement built around a functioning Duracell plant and find that they have no need for batteries at all, but that's a lot less likely than running into a settlement with a few prostitutes.

Youve basically summed it up buddy. Supply and demand (the most fundamental principle of any economy)

/end thread

People generally like their currencies to highly valued wherever they go

whilst this is true for large national/international economies. I think currency will be more localised in this scenario. Like you said if you like near an old duracell plant your community will have an abundance of batteries thus devaluing them (still useful though). If you live near an old brewery/distillery then alcohol will be in abundance and similarly not too valuable

Its when these small communities start trading is when we see the beginnings of an economy. Alcohol town is going to want to export its alcohol to battery town and so on and so forth. Before you know it there will be banks and a stock market and the world will descend for a peaceful apocolypse back into a corporate hell

 

[Tiger King]

I think it depends on how organised survivors would be.
would they be capable of rebuilding a functional society? or would they wallow in despair and become the last chapter in humanity, scavenging through ruins and raiding others?

I think both options would include trading. I'm thinking anything from material items to skills, livestock, probably even people.

Worst case scenario is it would be like dayz standalone. just loads of twats killing each other in rampant death matches, even when the people they kill offer no benefit to their survival.

 

[Foolery]

Sex. Just saying. You can pay me...with your body.

I was gonna say this with all seriousness. Its actually pretty plausible given the circumstances

Yep. Not pleasant to think about. But true. Considering some women suffering from poverty in North America in the past and present have resorted to prostitution in order to meet basic needs. And sex trafficking in third-world countries also indicates it is quite plausible, even without an apocalypse.

 

[Vegosiux]

Bartering, yes, but I think the economy would revert back to agricultural after a while. I mean, sure, ammo seems like a big thing at first, but it's going to run out since once you're in post-apocalypse everyone will be too busy trying to survive to produce any more of it. It'll run out.

Personally I think using a currency that has also has a functional value, and is one-time use, and isn't being produced, is a pretty dumb idea.

 

[Vault101]

somehing that has inherint value in of itself

caps is unrealistic because there is no society wide system to convice people "lets pretend this thing has value" who was the first person to sell a gun for 100 bottle caps?

Personally I think using a currency that has also has a functional value, and is one-time use, and isn't being produced, is a pretty dumb idea.

kind of like the Bullets in metro though...the more rare it is the more valuble it is...so much that it can trancend its ACTUAL use

 

[dyre]

Bartering, yes, but I think the economy would revert back to agricultural after a while. I mean, sure, ammo seems like a big thing at first, but it's going to run out since once you're in post-apocalypse everyone will be too busy trying to survive to produce any more of it. It'll run out.

Personally I think using a currency that has also has a functional value, and is one-time use, and isn't being produced, is a pretty dumb idea.

At least in the US, there's a ton of surplus ammo lying around. Keep in mind that you can handload expended cartridges so some parts of the bullets are reusable. I imagine primers and modern gunpowder would eventually run out, but there's nothing stopping people from making old-school black powder revolvers. I'm guessing that "cowboy" era stuff like black powder revolvers and lever action rifles will probably be the common weaponry of wealthier settlements. Maybe some of them will keep a reserve of modern weapons and ammunition for emergencies.

Why is that usable currency dumb? Salt (supremely valuable as a food preservative) was used as a currency in ancient Ethiopia and Rome. What surprises me more is that useless crap like silver and gems were so valuable in ancient times (I guess people were vain back then too).

 

[Vegosiux]

Why is that usable currency dumb? Salt (supremely valuable as a food preservative) was used as a currency in ancient Ethiopia and Rome. What surprises me more is that useless crap like silver and gems were so valuable in ancient times (I guess people were vain back then too).

Not in and of itself, but if it's also expended when used and not being produced, then it is. Now I suppose that there's the circumstance that depending on the kind of apocalypse, such a resource/currency might be contaminated and either not usable (in which case the unusable supply would work as currency I suppose) or not even fit for currency (say, too irradiated or something).

 

[gunny1993]

you only get currency when a society has reached a level where a centralized abstraction for value is required, otherwise you just get bartering. When you do reach that level you have to use something controlled by said centralized unit and would therefore most likely be coins meted down from scrap, you cant use something that is no longer made as you would suffer hideous inflation and you can't use something grown because you would suffer hidous devalization (Al la Douglas Adams).

 

[gunny1993]

Why is that usable currency dumb? Salt (supremely valuable as a food preservative) was used as a currency in ancient Ethiopia and Rome. What surprises me more is that useless crap like silver and gems were so valuable in ancient times (I guess people were vain back then too).

Don't think salt was ever a currency, it was a highly valued item but it was traded as an equivalent value to whatever the currency was at the time i.e. in Rome a gram of slat was worth half a denarius or something.

as far as i am aware a currency has to be worth less in its makeup than the value its worth ... if you see what i mean.

 

[dyre]

Why is that usable currency dumb? Salt (supremely valuable as a food preservative) was used as a currency in ancient Ethiopia and Rome. What surprises me more is that useless crap like silver and gems were so valuable in ancient times (I guess people were vain back then too).

Don't think salt was ever a currency, it was a highly valued item but it was traded as an equivalent value to whatever the currency was at the time i.e. in Rome a gram of slat was worth half a denarius or something.

as far as i am aware a currency has to be worth less in its makeup than the value its worth ... if you see what i mean.

Ah okay. I'm quite sure it was used as currency in Ethiopia though. In any case, in my first post about salt in the apocalypse I designated it as a "pseudo-currency." Something that can be carried around and almost guaranteed to sell at a half denarius fulfills most of the practical functions of a currency.

Regarding your comment about currency being worth more than the value of its material, yeah, you're correct in a modern sense. I was focusing more about bartered goods that could fulfill a "currency" role (easy to transport, hard to counterfeit, reasonably consistent demand anywhere you bring it) in a post-apocalyptic environment.

 

[dyre]

Why is that usable currency dumb? Salt (supremely valuable as a food preservative) was used as a currency in ancient Ethiopia and Rome. What surprises me more is that useless crap like silver and gems were so valuable in ancient times (I guess people were vain back then too).

Not in and of itself, but if it's also expended when used and not being produced, then it is. Now I suppose that there's the circumstance that depending on the kind of apocalypse, such a resource/currency might be contaminated and either not usable (in which case the unusable supply would work as currency I suppose) or not even fit for currency (say, too irradiated or something).

If you're worried about the currency being expended until it ceases to exist, I think one unique aspect of a hypothetical post-apocalyptic environment in terms of the "production" aspect is that the (no longer viable) act of producing certain things, like 5.56x45mm ammunition, is replaced with the (admittedly more economically volatile) act of scrounging them up from ruined cities and so on. Not that people can keep finding that stuff forever, but it should at least last until society is secure and prosperous enough to establish actual currencies.

I do however share the skepticism about bullets being used as currency at any point. There's just too much of it lying around for it to be valuable enough as a currency.

 

[CrimsonBlaze]

Hmm, I'm surprised that no one has mentioned seeds yet.

Than again, it would definitely depend on the type of apocalypse that the survivors underwent. Assuming that it was one where some parts of the world remained unspoiled, you could grow crops and have fresh produce to barter with.

If anything, agriculture would be probably one of the more important roles in order to ensure the survival and growth of communities.