The dollar is currently worth 1/1614th oz of gold.
actually, in 1800 an ounce of gold was worth about $20 (we had $20 gold coins consisting of 1 ounce of gold)
so, in relative terms, what you could buy in 1800 for $20 would cost you roughly $1600 today, an 80x increase. this results in the dollar being about $0.0125 of its value in 1800
to check if the numbers are close, we can compare weekly earnings.
around 1825, i see the earnings ranging from $1-8/day. this would put the weekly earnings around $5-40/wk... an average of $20 wouldn’t be too far off... or about 1 ounce of gold.
in 1926, the average was around $1,313/yr .. or $25.25/wk. which was just more then the price of an ounce of gold (it was $20.63/oz in 1926)
today, the median household income in 2011 was $50,054.. or about $1000/wk. this would be about 2/3s of an ounce of gold... showing Americans are losing value and making less as the push offshore continues.
the point is that the buying power of the dollar may have decreased, but the value of gold really hasn’t.