Bartering is a difficult way to trade on some levels, that is how coinage came into being, it was easier to have a divisible currency to trade. How did they barter a whole cow.... maybe three sheep and six hens.... but if you didn't want three sheep and six hens you are buggered, but when you had gold coinage all of similar size you could then value everything individually.... but they soon started to undermine the value of the gold coins by "clipping" then another step was to have less pure gold... then it went to mixed metal coins that had a shiny golden finish... we have been duped for years... devaluation of our money.
Maybe bartering will make a comeback