Those who collected silver coins in the 1970s find they buy about the same amount of goods they did then. One can still sometimes buy a mercury dime on Ebay for $1 or less. That said if there's an especially opportune time to buy precious metals a period when interest rates are at historical lows and have nowhere to go but up (as they did in the 1970s) would be it. Fiat has been steadily collapsing since 1913 with phys and crypto being the only exits available.