Would paper money actually be worthless in the apocalypse?

[Maeis]

I was just thinking about how the currency in the fall of society is usually bullets, or trade, or something like that, but people treat plastic cards and paper money like they mean something right now. People rob people for that paper money because it will still mean something if they can get away with it. So why would it be worthless?

 

[Damocles_Sword]

1: The cash is no longer backed by state violence.

2: it would have value in that people still need to wipe their asses.

 

[David Brown]

It's more likely that people will trade something inherently valuable and with a practical utility as a "currency". Paper money requires a degree of abstraction that is simply not affordable when every day is a violent fight for your life. That's my opinion anyway.

 

[Liquid denim]

Fallout used bottles cap because they were hard to recreate, so a bill has the same characteristic. However, the caps were backed by gold and water because those resources have high value

 

[Preacher ✝]

Of all the post apocalyptic video games I think Metro got it closest to right. The currency is ammunition.

 

[Betonhaus]

Depends. Do we still have the internet and debit cards in the apocalypse?

 

[Toji Suzuhara]

Depends on if it is Fallout/Mad Max-style of apocalypse with a total breakdown of society and critical lack of resources, in that case yeah, paper money might as well just have the worth of regular paper, but if some communities, even small-scale ones, are able to survive, and they have enough reserves of it so that they just don't run out of paper money in the near future because people lost/damaged it, it could still work

 

[Kosher Dill]

Forget the apocalypse, we have countries right now where the local paper money is essentially worthless. If the currency's not backed up by some sort of stable, functioning state then nobody uses it unless forced.

 

[Town Drunk]

Think back to when we still had a barter system. I'll give you ten chickens to thatch my roof. Or I'll shod your horse for a bushel of grain.

Money only has value because as a society we agree it does. You can't eat gold, you can't burn it for warmth, in a dessert a bottle of water has more value than a million dollars worth of paper.

 

[Suburban Bastard]

You can at least wipe your ass with it

 

[Preacher ✝]

in a dessert a bottle of water has more value than a million dollars

There's an episode of Twilight Zone about that.

 

[Xarpho's Return]

Think back to when we still had a barter system. I'll give you ten chickens to thatch my roof. Or I'll shod your horse for a bushel of grain.

Money only has value because as a society we agree it does. You can't eat gold, you can't burn it for warmth, in a dessert a bottle of water has more value than a million dollars worth of paper.

Bartering still persists, like giving someone beer for them doing you a favor.

I'm not sure what came first, "I will give you this rare shiny rock for (whatever)" or "What if we had a common generic unit to trade for goods and services later".

 

[Dysnomia]

People might still ascribe value to it. But in the end it will have less worth than skill and resources. All those people who wasted daddy's money on gender studies degrees will be wishing they had learned trades.

 

[geckogoy]

Realistically there is almost no way something of practical value will become money, you need to be able to have savings and you can't really afford to save stuff that is actually useful like ammo. Thats why in the past it was always precious metals, there is an inherent limit on how much there is which is inflation proofing and its not good for much else. Its always better to use useful goods to produce more goods instead of hording them.

I think it would go straight back to gold and silver coins.

 

[Zbk3VmLfujjzjxBd43tL]

Possibly. In medieval China, Song dynasty paper money was used for some years after that dynasty fell and had to be yanked from circulation. It's convenient because everyone is used to it and it signifies something, even if it's just backed by some warlord state.

Realistically there is almost no way something of practical value will become money, you need to be able to have savings and you can't really afford to save stuff that is actually useful like ammo. Thats why in the past it was always precious metals, there is an inherent limit on how much there is which is inflation proofing and its not good for much else. Its always better to use useful goods to produce more goods instead of hording them.

I think it would go straight back to gold and silver coins.

It might hit the economy so hard that precious metals aren't used. In Western Europe, nobody besides governments and merchants used precious metal coins from the le Roman Empire until the 13th century i.e. medieval Europe's golden age. And gold coins weren't used by ordinary people until the 19th century IIRC. that case it's back to barter.

If there is a monetary economy, then it's gonna be ordinary US coins. Copper coins rule and are durable and they're issued by a once-trustworthy government. I'm skeptical silver or gold would be used by any group beside merchants and governments because it would be worth far more than denominations ordinary people would use. Even zinc pennies aren't that bad. Iron coins are even worse (they rust), but some iron coins in China saw centuries of use. China was also still using Song dynasty coins until the CCP came to power, that's how reliable copper coins are. Those same old-ass 13th century coins were also the defacto currency of Korea, Japan, and Vietnam for several centuries until they issued their own coins.

 

[Cat tit bingo]

In a bartering system currency comes about to help even out trades, we agree your horse is worth 5 sheep but right now I only have 4 so here's some coupons worth 1 sheep which in turn equals 1/5 of a horse. It only works if the society is firmly established and all the people are polite enough to accept that social contract. While not immediately after a few decades or centuries societies will start to form again and use a similar system since it's just practical.
I don't think our paper money has any chance of being used since there is just so much of it hanging around, why should anyone trade food and resources for something they find laying around. I don't think any current resource like metals, bills, or bottle caps will work since our society has so much of it, they would probably barter the bulk of resources and use something new made by that specific society.

 

[Dr. Eldon Tyrell]

No, some big clan would surely pick it up as their currency and back it with their firepower and start policing counterfits.They would enact some sheme to suck up all the currency people have flying around (giving out food looted food stocks, a can for a thousand or something like that) and then, after holding back and normalizing it's value locally, start giving it out as compensation again.
They will simply rob outside people coming in with pre war money stacks and add it to their "reserve" when they stabilized their local bubble that way and probably phase out excess left over currency by date/serial number or some other arbitrary characteristic and start phasing in their own, when it becomes possible to do so. There will be wars over printing equipment.

 

[Rudy Coleman]

no you can whype your crusty asshole with them

In the apocalypse, runescape items will be worth more than silly dollars. I will give my kingdom for a yewbow (u) that i will trade for a single 9mm bullet,
i will use this bullet to rob people for their shit, but i dont have a gun so ill just hold the bullet up to them vertically like a sprite and screech at them like a sped

 

[Pierre D'Olnique]

We'll find out soon enough, I guess.

 

[Mike Matei's Penis]

no you can whype your crusty asshole with them

Not Australian money, it's made of a waxy polymer and has a transparent part now

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/21/australian-banknotes-one-of-the-most-advanced-in-the-world.html

This shit would be useless on my asshole