You've got it backwards. In 1923, your 8 million 1923-dollars was worth what $138 million 2023-dollars is today. You started with $138 million 2023-dollars, but denominated in 1923-dollars that's $8 million.

If you just hold on to it your 1923-dollars have become 2023-dollars, but there's still exactly $8 million of them. You've lost nearly 95% of the value.

however, given that your 1923 dollars were likely silver dollars which currently trade for $32 (for junk grade) and up ... I made that 8m * 32 = 256m :) - and better if you were sensible and stored un-circulated dollars

>> If I was alive in 1923 and stashed away $8 million

> your 1923 dollars were likely silver dollars

It's unlikely that you had 200 metric tons of silver coins stashed away.

> It's unlikely that you had 200 metric tons of silver coins stashed away.

I think the grandparent was imagining they were silver certificate dollars[1], not actual silver dollar coins. That said, silver certificate dollars needed to be converted at some point in the past, in 2023 they can't be converted and only have collector value, and $8 million worth would dilute their collector value substantially.

[1]:https://www.investopedia.com/articles/markets-economy/090116...

I’m surprised that the certificates can be worth more. I guess they are rare - it may be hard to sell them all for much more than a dollar on average.

In any case eight millions are several metric tons.

Well, you'd have to have a safe place to literally store that cash. If that save place was a bank, then you'd not have silver dollars, unless you paid for storage.

Also banks weren't really safe that entire time!