My grandfather explained it like this: In the gold rush days, an ounce of gold would buy a decent tailored men’s suit. Today, an ounce of gold would buy a decent tailored men’s suit.
Pretty much, give or take. It comes down to the labor needed to mine that ounce of Gold. Same with Silver. One ounce of Silver was a day’s wages. Of course, one ounce of Silver is now only several hour’s pay, but that is because of machinery and automation to mine Silver, but, if Silver bounces back up then it once again becomes a day’s wages.
Yes, but then 20 silver $1 would do the same. Today...not so much