1971
Anchor cut · $100.00 remains
The gold window closes. From here on, the hundred is a promise about a promise. Nobody's palms sweat. Yet.
1980
$49 remains · −51%
Nine years. Half the promise, gone. No robbery, no receipt, no suspect — that's the whole trick.
1994
$27 remains · −73%
Prices didn't rise. Your slice of everything got thinner. Same bill in your pocket, smaller world around it.
2008
$19 remains · −81%
The printer learns a euphemism: quantitative easing. Your groceries never learn the vocabulary.
2020
$16 remains · −84%
Four in ten dollars in existence arrive within twenty-four months. You slept through it. That was the design.
2026
$12.35 remains · −88%
Twelve dollars and change — that's what's left of the hundred. They still call it two percent. Compounding calls it a career.