My original post was intended to contrast the difference between "real" money and the increasingly worthless paper dollars in circulation today.
Just a few dollars face value worth of silver coins today has enough silver value to fuel up your vehicle. Paper dollars from the same era are basically as worthless as those printed today because silver is a real commodity and paper is worthless.
A lot of people are concerned about buying silver because they're afraid the spot will continue to drop, but even if demand for silver doesn't increase in the next 10, 20, 30 or 40 years it will still eventually take more paper money to buy silver because paper dollars will continue to lose value, but there will always be a demand for precious metals. So, in the end you'll always be able to exchange silver coins for more than face value.