[mikewarot]

In 1960, a US quarter bought about 0.80 US gallon of gasoline.

In 2022, a US quarter will buy you about 0.06 US gallon of gasoline.

In 2022, a 1960 US quarter's melt value will buy you about 0.95 US gallon of gasoline. (Gasoline production is more efficient, despite higher taxes)

Hard currency limited how much money could be added into the money supply through lending. Now the value of the US dollar is largely the result of our military leverage forcing oil producing countries to price their oil in US Dollars.

This makes us the "Global Reserve Currency", and "more stable" than the rest of the similarly floating currencies.