I just inherited a gob of silver certificates—all in uncirculated condition. If only they had been converted to silver coins before the government reneged on the promise printed right on the bill. Oh well.
Yes, there was inflation before we abolished silver in our money. But there was a floor. When I was a kid, a quarter had about 20¢ worth of silver in it. So 80% of its buying power came from the silver itself, the rest from the fact that the government said it was a quarter dollar. Today that same 1963 quarter has close to $3 worth of silver in it.
Taking the silver out of our money, let the government print money without limit. I used to point out to my students that Federal Reserve Notes used to have in the fine print that they were “...redeemable in lawful money at the U.S. Treasury or any Federal Reserve Bank”. So the FRN, although tender for all debts public and private wasn’t really lawful money.
Or used to buy Philip Morris stock.....
Some of the more radical of us HARD MONEY people now call the things FRAUDS: Federal Reserve Accounting Unit Denominators. They are, after all, simply intrinsically worthless tokens of those digits Mike discussed in the video!