I guess we soon need a subforum that details all the supply issues ?
gold,coffee,reloading,fuel,farming...
Its just great to read all the different -and well founded -opinions here guys .
If I didnt know how to run this in my campaign -I would after reading these posts.
( I did know incidentally
)
My two cents ( well,my other two ) :
Yes it will have value .In T2K almost everything will have value -even dirt thats been radiated . ( "We want ze poisoned dirt to zpread on ze enemy fields-how much iz it?")
farfetched -yes.
So gold and silver -both useful and pretty metals in their way will have a value.
They can be made into a currency -as stated- in say a cantonment ,
they can be bartered for goods in a one on one meeting far from all cantonment
as long as the one party creates a demand for it -say he likes the way it glimmers in the pale ,post nuclear holocaust sun and or that his now dead wife used to have one just like it .
An irrational want for the item as opposed to a calculated motive based on a rational play for higher gain .
These are the theories of the rational /irrational operator in the economic system ( Weber I believe/Vienna school of sosiology - iirc ).
So both the agreed upon value in a community and the spur of the moment barter in the wasteland has merit .It can have a symbolic value as a "coin" -much like or currency bills in RL that have little real application once the agreed upon psychosis that they are "all that matters " lifts
( that would be after T2K like events )
Or gold rings can be worth their weight as fish hook sinks - easy to fix to the line , good density -and looks nice on your rig too.
A practical and a symbolic value .
Everyone will have to decide on the value depending on location and circumstance.
In our campaign gold has had various values .Gen PAin used to hoard huge amounts in teh now smouldering and radioactive crater that was his beloved Library Tower .He believed it would be worth alot--soon .But in that circumstance ,everybody were desperate ,half naked ,cannibalistic savages running around with melee weapons looking to eat thy neighbour. So gold was less valuable than fresh rat meat -or even spoiled rat meat .Later when his hoarding became known ,and the bounty he placed on gold was spread , gold got value and was sold to him for rations.
In the short lived PacGov republic ( corrupt,warmongering dictatorship that it was ) the players made currency in the form of plastic chits /coins after they had reached a certain level of organization.
But they also made gold coins when they started out since these were easier to make with their primitive technology at the time .It is mallable ,and recognized through habit by us as valuable .An agreed upon value ,but also a practical one as the need for a currency arose ,the medium to make one got intrinsic value etc etc .
I do believe in universal value - it will just vary from next to nothing to tremendous.
Sorry if I bored the c**p out of anybody with this .