"Funny how my coin collection from childhood's real value is simply the silver contained therein."
Same with the copper coins you colleccted. Many of them are just worth their weight in copper, also. Only a few such coins were produced in small quantities such that old copies are worth much. especially since most have been circulated. Not rare and shitty condition equals melt it down for metal. :)

"Seems like the numbers are off."

Well okay, say you manage to find a shitty old dump of a farm with land for $400,000 right now....

We should keep in mind that dollars weren't ounces of silver. In Canada at that time they were 92.5% silver. This one from the USA was 90% silver, and it weighs 0.86 troy ounces. So there was about 620 troy ounces of pure silver in 800 or so of those "dollars".

For those same dollars to buy a farm (priced at 400k), silver would have to go up to $645 per troy ounce!

Which is what I'm saying. Silver's price has been manipulated downward for so long, we don't even consider it a precious metal anymore. But we use it in industry like it's going out of style. The mines are having trouble keeping up with demand, and above-ground stockpiles are at generational lows right now. Manipulation of precious metals prices was once a theory, and is now just a plain old conspiracy. At some point, there's going to be a sharp revaluation, and farms will again be purchased for bags of metal coins.