Gazrok
A True Doomsday Prepper
Your goal should be to become as self sufficient as you can so that you can produce your own food and clean water and live off of the grid. If you can accomplish that, your need for precious metals will be mute
Post SHTF, our goal would be to produce MORE food and water (and other grown items) than we could use. So we have extra to barter with. Of course, we've also given thought to services we can provide, such as repairs (mechanical and auto), medical services, even guarded lodging, etc. Of course, a lot would really just depend on what the SHTF scenario was....
With all this precedent, should gold and silver really be discounted in a prepper's stash?
I'm not poo poo'ing it altogether. I just wouldn't rely on it much. A post SHTF world is a very different setting than when these were historically useful, though. Conditions at those times were such that it could easily be converted to a spendable medium. That simply won't be the case immediately after a SHTF scenario...