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Message:: [QUOTE="-jeffB, post: 1915615, member: 27832"]There's an element of preservation, but also an element of coincidence. In early 1980, that quarter could've bought NINE gallons of gas. In 1982, it might've bought ONE gallon. Over the span from 1985 to 2005, silver mostly stayed around $5.00 per ounce, making that quarter worth 90 cents. During that same time, crude oil fluctuated wildly (below $10/bbl in the winter of 98-99, up to $50/bbl in 2005); gas prices didn't fluctuate quite that much, but I do have records of buying gas in 1999 for something like 70 cents/gallon, and I know it was at least double that a year or two earlier, and triple that by 2005. So, depending on when you're making the statement, that quarter might've preserved its value relative to gas, or increased its value ninefold, or actually lost some value. Meanwhile, in 1984, $2.20 would've bought one gallon of milk or two gallons of gas. Put that money into the mutual fund, and today it would buy a bit less than seven gallons of gas, or about the same amount of milk. Did it go up 11 times (as indicated by its nominal dollar value), or 3.5 times (relative to gas), or 7 times (relative to milk)?[/QUOTE]