This year, the last year a quarter
was real money, a gallon of gasoline
cost around 25 cents, a dozen eggs cost
approximately 50 cents, and a gallon of
milk was around one dollar. This means
we needed one quarter for a gallon of
gas, two quarters for eggs, and four
quarters for milk.

Fast forward to today, when the average
price for a gallon of gasoline is $3.75.
This means it takes 15 quarters to
purchase one gallon of gasoline,
unless, of course, you had a silver
quarter made in let’s say 1950. This
coin has a current silver value of $5
using the average silver price from
2010 to 2013 of $27.57. With
this silver quarter you could
not only still afford to purchase
a gallon of gasoline with the
same amount of money, but get change
back. In terms of silver, gas has actually
gone down by 33%. On the other hand,
when using a paper currency backed by
debt as your medium of exchange, gas
has risen 1,400%!

When looking at other items such as
eggs and milk, the average cost for
those items today in fiat dollars is $1.83
and $3.55 respectively. It now takes just
over seven quarters for eggs and 14
quarters for milk. Seems like prices are
really going up aren’t they? In fiat terms
they are because your measuring stick
is flawed.