Median Gold Valuation as of 6/1/23: $3,969/60 USD / troy oz

Median Silver Valuation as of 6/1/23: $180.05 USD / troy oz

Minimum Wage Inflation

In the United States of America in 1964, the minimum wage was approximately $1.25, or five quarters. Of course, this was the last year the quarters in circulation contained 90% silver.

In the United States of America today, as of the time of writing, the minimum wage is approximately $9.30. The $9.30 was obtained by averaging over the federal minimum wage and all state minimum wages. However, five quarters is only worth $1.25 and they contain 0% silver.

However, if one considers those five pre-1965 90% silver quarters, they each contain approximately .90*(6.25g*.03215 troy oz / g) = .1808 troy oz of silver. Using the spot value of silver as of the time of writing, each quarter is worth approximately .1808*$28.45 = $5.15. Therefore, five of these quarters are worth approximately 5*$5.15 = $25.73.

If one adds the face value of $1.25 back to this, five of these quarters are worth $25.73 + $1.25 = $26.98. Note that the $25.73 or $26.98 are much greater than the minimum wage, showing that silver more than keeps up with minimum wage.

If one inflates the current spot price of silver by the inflation adjustment of going from $1.25 to $9.30, one gets a silver valuation of $28.45*($9.30/$1.25) = $211.67 / troy oz.

We can calculate a similar inflation adjustment using the spot price of gold, to get a gold valuation of $13,927.98 / troy oz.



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