In 1964, the last year the U.S. minted 90% silver quarters, you could buy a gallon of gasoline with a quarter.
Current spot price of 1oz silver is $27.15. ($27.15 x .9 = $24.435) $24.435/4 = ~$6.11. Or enough to buy ~ 2.5 gallons of gasoline.
That aside, there's supposedly a "short squeeze" on silver as there are more certificates than bullion. Folks on Zerohedge, Reddit, and other social media platforms have been discussing this.
The basic premise is to buy physical bullion, and or silver shares ($SLV). Hedge funds shorting silver will have to buy to cover the short, thus driving up the price (and the value of "retail investors'" holdings).
The lack of physical bullion, and volume of people requesting physical delivery, adds to the scarcity, and increases the difficulty the hedge funds will have covering the shorts - further accelerating the price and the "value" of retail's holdings.
I read an article a few years ago about the concept that a “perfect” economy would constantly experience deflation. The idea was that technology would continually make goods and services cheaper to provide. It touches on moore’s law, regarding computers, but how a similar (but not so dramatic) law really applies to everything.