If there aren't any $2 cards in the Kingdom, It seems to me like Herbalist might still be a decent option with HP. Yeah, you only get to $7 with Gold/Silver/Copper/Herbalist, but you almost always draw a spare Copper once you have your stack going. It has the +buy that lets you get 2xHP or Province/Estate if you get lucky enough to draw $10. I guess I wouldn't take it over a $2 action, but I don't think you are just going to get stuck hitting $7.
Edit: I tried it a couple of times, and it seemed to work well enough. The biggest problem was Herbalist not doing a great job of getting to $5 early. The first test game was slow to get off the ground because of this.
Also, I was topdecking Gold, which seems like a good idea in general, but since it is guaranteed to be a Unique card, it doesn't help you skip anything. If there is any benefit to skipping cards earlier, I guess it might be better to do Silver or Copper, but I'm not convinced there is.