To see what I mean, Google "Eduardo Saverin defriends USA".
Average Joe can choose his valuation in a barter, and as long as it's a reasonable one and he can justify it in case of an audit Joe will likely be fine. Barter makes it a not-so-exact science.
Another interesting thing is, one can shop with junk silver and buy things for "way cheaper" because someone might prefer the pre-1965 silver quarters you have in your bag to paper bills or coins of today's US Mint and Federal Reserve.
If you buy a car and offer junk silver to the dealer, (s)he may just let you pay at a discount . . . based on the value of the silver content instead of the face value of the coins. While it does not appear to be savings, when you go to register the car if the sales price is the face value of the coins it's a LOT lower than the silver value. How does this help you? If your vehicle registration fees are based on face value coin price, you pay less upon first registration and less every year thereafter. Meanwhile the dealer who sold you the car can turn around and cash the junk silver in for the full value if (s)he desires . . . or keep it if (s)he thinks the value of silver will go up.
Technicall, yes, because silver coins (and silver/gold eagles) are considered legal currency. However, to the best of my knowledge, no one has tested out that particular strategy to see if it holds up in a federal court against the IRS. I think the IRS would definitely fight it, and mostly likely win, based on an argument that the car dealer was clearly accepting the coins for their intrinsic value instead of face value.
I agree. Although Americans do like to settle a lot so may be there is some benefit to be had.