the silver price for gas
May 23rd, 2008 by 
bkmarcus
Last year, I wrote,
… a great piece of silver trivia I'd never heard before:
In 1964, 3 silver dimes could buy you a gallon of gas (about 27¢/gallon); At the current rate of silver, the metal value of 3 silver dimes would be about $3, just enough for a gallon of gas.
I checked the math. Silver was $1.29/ounce in 1964, according to Kitco.com. Today's spot price is $12.93, again, according to Kitco. According to 1960sFlashback.com, gasoline was 30¢/gallon in 1964. And according to MSN, a gallon of gas in Charlottesville today ranges from $2.27 to $2.59/gallon.
So if anything, gasoline has gotten cheaper. At least by the silver standard. By the gold standard ($35.10/ounce in 1964 versus $650/ounce today), we should expect a gallon of gasoline to cost $5.55 in present dollars, so by gold-standard prices, gasoline prices have fallen significantly.…
Today's spot price for silver is $18.20. That would put a gallon of gas at $4.23.
In Charlottesville, gas prices range from $3.71 to $3.92 per gallon.
Just thought I'd offer an update. You can read the rest of last year's post for some background on the nature and history of money, inflation, coinage, etc.
Update: The "Silver Is Money" blog provides this handy chart:
May 23rd, 2008 at 3:31 pm
Now just compare that rate of inflation to the rate of pay increases and average incomes.
:( everybody's broke.
May 23rd, 2008 at 3:33 pm
Coins are for nerds!
May 23rd, 2008 at 3:52 pm
Out here in soCal, I just paid 4.05 at a "cheap" station. it's at least 4.23 in Hollywood and downtown.
May 23rd, 2008 at 5:07 pm
Does anybody know where I can find a thorough analysis of the relationship between the dollar prices of precious metals and other commodities?
I'd like to be sure that trivia like this isn't anomalous before I put too much stock in it.
May 23rd, 2008 at 7:02 pm
[...] And yes, it’s also true if we measure it in silver, gas price has actually became cheaper: http://bkmarcus.com/blog/2008/05/the-silver-price-for-gas. [...]
May 23rd, 2008 at 9:38 pm
I realize the context in which you are speaking is the relationship of dollars/barrel versus euros/barrel and that particular reflection on national/regional economies. I still feel that the nature of the present "fractional reserve" system in place negates the relevance of any precious metal system.
May 23rd, 2008 at 10:34 pm
Ive seen the same thing with gold. Both seem to go up at the same rate.
May 26th, 2008 at 3:24 pm
I've seen a similar analysis for an ounce of gold being enough wealth to buy a man's suit. That's generally been true right along (helped by the fact that you could buy a cheap man's suit a few years back for $300 or so when gold was down, or a rather nice suit a few weeks ago for $1000).
It's not too surprising that the value of extracted natural resources (gold, silver, oil) pretty much track together.
May 26th, 2008 at 5:23 pm
um no, the national average as of May 27 is 3.83$$ Oil company profits have increased drastically, Exxon-mobil alone has seen an increase in profits of 300% since 2002. Gas doesn't seem to be getting "cheaper" as you claim.
May 26th, 2008 at 11:04 pm
In 1964, the year graduated. Gas in Missuori was 14 Cents a gallon and for drycleaning my shirt was also costing me 14 Cents. While new shirt was costing US $ 3
July 29th, 2008 at 10:33 am
The phenomenon you have illustrated here, also reveals how the U.S. government pays its debts and screws savers out of their money! The government has borrowed a huge amount of money to wage war in Iraq. They have papers for a $650 billion debt, made when a man earns $10.00 hr. It looks like it would take a lot of hours to pay off that debt doesn't it, but looks are deceiving. If the government lets inflation run rampant, and devalues the dollar by half, a man will get $40.00 and hour but he still only has to pay off $650 billion - he has twice as much to pay with, right? Now, if the amount of the debt goes down slightly each year, and the real rate of inflation goes up significantly each year, twenty years from now, the man will owe less, and be paying it off at probably over $300.00 an hour - a lot better! This is great if you are a government, but for a citizen, trying to save for old age, it means that the money you put away today will have very little purchasing power by the time you need to spend it. There are proven records where even high interest accounts do not keep the purchasing power of money invessted on par with inflation - we are all getting screwed so that the government can continue its war mongering spendthrift ways, and since the government is the 'Decider' they opt for inflation and rob the savers every time!
August 8th, 2008 at 10:37 am
I'd rather have one Real Silver coin in my pocket than two pockets stuffed with fake currency that imply a message of "In the Illuminati We Trust"!