When people fear the government and banks teaming up to loot them, they buy gold and silver. Gold for those who are thinking of relocating over long distances, silver for those who want to be able to run a locally resilient economy.

The Chinese and people in India traditionally hoard gold so that they can take a lot of wealth overseas in a briefcase and set up life anywhere they go with it. Wealthier Europeans have traditionally done that with gems, but then so have a number of Africans, South Americans and Middle Eastern people.

Silver is the bastard child of that, since local silver based economic systems vary a lot. Thing is right now, in the last month, it made almost a $3 per ounce move upward. It is easier to buy in much of the domestic USA and one of the fallback options when lower to middling bank and stock investments get scary.

Silver also has an industrial base value which is more commonly utilitarian than Gold. Basically, there always will be a silver coin of some sort worth roughly $10 to $25 in today's money, whether or not it is a quarter, half or full ounce coin depends on its popularity as a trade medium, but I think a future of a quarter ounce coin being worth a healthy sized meal at a middling level diner will be about right. That's $40-$50 oz silver.