How to Barter With Gold
Fears of falling currency value can lead people to want a more stable means of trade. Since gold is a material of some value (unlike paper money), it has potential for use in bartering transactions. If you want to avoid using paper money when buying or selling, you can consider bartering with gold. Read on to learn how to barter with gold.
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Instructions
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Find someone else who has a product or service that you want and who is also willing to barter, instead of just using paper currency. Paper money is convenient because it's accepted virtually anywhere; this might limit your pool of potential partners for bartering.
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Determine a fair trade for gold versus the product or service. You can simply compare the value of the product or service and the value of the gold in terms of the paper currency (simply decide how much gold would cover the cost of the product in dollars, euros or whatever currency you choose), or you can come to a mutually agreeable trade, regardless of the currencies.
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Measure accurately the amount of gold needed for the transaction. This may involve a certain number of a specific type of gold coin, for example.
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Get a receipt, just as you would for a cash purchase. Your receipt is proof of payment for the product or service; you may need it later for either tax or customer service issues.
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Realize that, for legal and tax purposes, bartering is the same as buying and selling using cash. Your taxing authorities (federal, state or local) may require you to pay a fair-value tax for your barter income.
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Tips & Warnings
Bartering with gold offers numerous benefits, such as avoidance of the kind of problems with inflation that plague paper money. On the other hand, bartering with gold poses problems, such as the fact that it is more difficult to buy with gold than it is to buy with paper money. You need to weigh the costs and benefits to decide if bartering with gold is feasible for you.
As with paper money, gold can be "counterfeited." For example, unscrupulous sorts can shave gold coins to remove some of the gold, or they can make fake coins filled with less valuable metals. Be sure that you are dealing with someone reputable, and check the quality of the gold before the barter, if necessary.
