Worlds First Gold And Silver Bank Notes

It seems that I have a major conundrum here, and that is to calculate the USD value of the gold content of these banknotes.
It's going to take a real math wizard to do it.
It is beyond my capabilities.
But, I can supply all the info needed.
Hopefully there is someone in our community that can do it and enjoys a good challenge.
So first, here's the background.
The changeover rate, in January1999 when I first started buying this collection, was $37.00 USD to $100.00 Antigua Barbuda. And that was for paper money.
That says nothing about the value of the metals in the bills, but makes you think that you are getting $100.00 for $37.00 if you don't know the conversion rate.
I bought them for $38.50 USD each, a slight premium over the paper money value.
They were supposedly legal tender at the time (in Antigua Barbuda), and maybe they still are.
That tells me that the metal content must have been, at that time, less than what I paid or it wouldn't have been practical for them to produce and sell them.
What is the value of $38.50 in 1999 USD today with inflation?
Now for the facts needed to calculate the gold value of the bill.
They advertised the bill being 23k gold foil with .999 silver ships embossed on them.
Taking it for granted that each bill is of the same thickness, which I figure is a good bet.
Measuring the thickness with my digital Vernier caliper, it measures out to .011 thick.
Measuring with a machinists ruler, it measures out to 6" by 2 ½".
Using those measurements, someone should be able to figure the volume of the bill and find out how much gold is in each one. (23k not 24k)
These calculations will completely ignore the silver foil that is only embossed on the surface of the gold.
The silver is negligible anyway.
The only other way I can think of to find the gold content would be to buy one on the internet and find a way to analyze it, thus probably destroying it as a collectable.
They are easily found for sale on the net, which leads me to think that there were a lot of people who never completed the collection, or there were some people who broke them up to sell, which makes the total of complete collections to be far less than 20,000, making complete collections more valuable.
Let me know what you think.

I have a feeling that the value on these is much greater than they are selling for. I could be wrong and I would not mind being proven wrong as long as I could get a definitive value to solve this question.

Now that we know the date purchased, the notes being all gold make more sense. Gold in 1999 sold on average for $278.86 (per troy ounce) or $8.67 per gram, assuming 2.4 grams we have $20.81 for 24K and $19.41 for 23K. Considering the notes cost $38.50, you are looking at a profit to the seller of about $17-$18 per note (minus expenses).

So yes based on 1999 prices the notes could be ~ 2.4 grams of 23K gold. That still doesn't explain the current selling price though.

If this was me, I would get the notes XRF and have the dealer get the gold estimate in each goin. At 2.4 grams of gold, you are talking $141 in gold in each note.

@garbanzo, you are correct, we had a pretty lively debate on what you have. I wish you good luck. I will offer 1 more favor, I have several coin shops locally, I would be willing to get 1 XRF'ed for you and find out the actual gold content is and ship it back to you.

I know you don't know me from Adam, but this is more a curiosity to me as it is to you.

Of course I meant the past 23 years.

So you bought the set for $38.50 + postage X 30?
That would be $1155.00 USD + postage back in 1999? According to my inflation calculator that would be worth $2,026.42 today.

Here's a set of 30 offered for $450 USD on ebay (shipping included):
https://www.ebay.com/itm/175183634148
It appears as if the set has lost $1576 in the past 23 years?
Very odd!

walk2dwater .. you didn't figure into the equation the value of gold going up. That's part of the confusion. You are dealing with the value of the paper money.