It's really impossible, or at least impractical, to factor in all the changes in money supply, baskets of goods, inflation, growth in societal wealth, etc. to d

It's really impossible, or at least impractical, to factor in all the changes in money supply, baskets of goods, inflation, growth in societal wealth, etc. to do inflation comparisons across centuries. Gold has always been internationally recognized money, at least until Bretton-Woods https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bretton_Woods_system https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bretton_Woods_system. But there has never been enough gold to provide sufficient liquidity in the economy, so silver has also been considered money. And of course the gold/silver ratio has fluctuated historically. The dollar is derived from the Spanish silver doubloon, which was money in the New World. Britain restricting circulation currency was one of the grievances of the American colonies leading up to the war for independence. A doubloon could be divided into eight pieces with a chisel, hence the terms two bits to refer to a quarter and pieces of eight from pirate stories. Apparently in law one troy ounce is still the official U.S. dollar coin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dollar_coin_(United_States)#American_Silver_Eagle_(1986%E2%80%93present) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dollar_coin_(United_States)#Am.... So I would say a better measure of dollar inflation is to smooth out the fluctuations in the gold/silver ratio and fluctuations in the silver/dollar price.