two thousand years ago, a man acquired 30 Tyrian shekels from a government agent in the Roman province of Judea. The 30 shekels contained a total of about 400 grams of silver.4 No one knows for sure what this man did with the money, but we can ask: how many grams of silver would his heirs have today if the silver had all been invested in an asset that yielded a silver-denominated return of 1% per year? What about 2% per year? 3% per year?