[taway_6PplYu5]

You know, the Spanish once found a whole country made out of silver, they called it Argentina (argent == silver). And they brought a lot of this silver back to mainland Spain.

While the value of silver coin did not shrink to zero during that time, it did shrink quite a bit, all across Europe. Historians like to write about 150 years of massive inflation.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_revolution

[mikewarot]

From that article

  Prices rose on average roughly sixfold over 150 years. This level of inflation amounts to 1.2% per year compounded

Prices have risen far quicker than that since the Nixon shock. Perhaps the reason we haven't gotten upset is that most people don't remember the value of hard currency?