It's tax season, just want to remind people to put that money to good use, not just on fancy new toys ;). Gold/Silver are great, and are spendable in a situation where SHTF. Ammo is a good choice too. Hell, even savings bonds will do better than the dollar considering our current inflation problem.
Just don't keep it as paper money for the love of god!
While I do have some silver put back for contingencies, there currently exists NO standard mechanism for using it as currency. Walk into a store today and ask to speak to the manager before buying something, he will probably tell you, "Um... sir we have no way of taking silver, except at face value for coins...and bars or commemorative coins? ... we can't deal with those."
That moment hasn't come yet in the American economy, but in time it probably will. And as to "savings bonds," in a fiat currency, such bonds have about the same "value" as the printed money, which could soon be zero.
Now ammo is a different matter.... certainly useful for its intrinsic value of "going bang and deterring criminals and tyrants" but to be used as a currency, there is at this time no standardized value attached to ammo, especially since prices are quite inflated right now. At a gun show recently I saw bulk 5.56 going for around $0.50/round whereas it used to be around $0.20/round back around 2000.
Without a standardized value placed on such items as silver bars or ammo (and current spot price of silver is irrelevant in a SHTF scenario), people will be reluctant to barter in them. If a SHTF situation lasted for a long time, such valuations might eventually emerge, but at this moment, no one really knows what such items would be worth with store shelves empty and transportation of goods at a standstill.
If a true SHTF condition arose in the US, we would all have to up our security game and become the modern equivalent of barbarians to protect our homes, our families, and our assets whatever they are.... food, silver, gold, firearms, etc. You would see people who have NOT prepared suddenly desperate for these items and who will do anything -- and I do mean ANYTHING -- to feed themselves for one more day. The value of you life or your family's lives won't enter into their calculations. Hunger will drive them mad with an urgency to survive at any cost.
If you or your family is not willing or able to use lethal force, you will become an unrecorded statistic after normalcy returns. Do what you have to to get to the other side of any SHTF situation, and that will most likely include becoming a viscous, merciless barbarian yourself.