I'm ignorant on the subject of using gold, silver, etc. as currency

[hellbilly]

I understand the advantage of having gold & silver.

You see, I have this friend.... who runs an unlicensed business. He is open to bartering & trades and is curious about using these shiny minerals that humans go ape over to complete transactions.

None of his clients use gold or silver, none of the retailers accept it, etc.

How would he go about finding interested parties to do business with? He's already asked his regular clients and no one's biting... they all send him 1099's each year, and aside from an occasional trade, they're all on the up & up.

After obtaining the minerals, what's the best way to locate retailers who accept them?

And then, how is it divvied up? How little of a slice of gold, how small a speck of dust is traded?

Due to a (probably) unhealthy & irrational hatred of money, I'm totally ignorant of this subject (as well as the subject of stock markets & trading). I understand there are brokers who hold the minerals and set up an account and all that, but I don't trust that. When the feds come knocking to seize the gold that means I'm shit outta luck.

So assuming I want to have the minerals on-hand, how does the trading actually get done?

(sorry for any awkward wording.. low blood sugar comin on!)

[Turd Ferguson]

If you're holding physical, right now there aren't a whole hell of alot of options for trading in the real world. Ebay is a good place to sell if you need some actual cash on hand. You typically get a few bucks over spot price for an oz of silver which makes up for the ebay/paypal fees they rape you with.

As for bartering, might as well forget that idea for right now, unless you stumble upon somoene who feels the same way you do. Its not mainstream and probably wont be for some time, might not ever be. Best you can do is just hold the physical as long as you believe it will continue going up in price and sell what you need when you actually need to buy something.