Pounds shillings and pence - in today's value.

[Redroger]

Well, that 36 pounds was enough to allow my great-great grandmother to live on her own means, with 2 young daughters, for 4 years before she remarried.  I suppose she might just have been very frugal but she managed!

Then as now I would guess location and the location of the extended family were factors to be taken into account.

[Mavals]

One relative of mine had a pension of 21/6 fro herself and 3 children after her husband dies at the Somme.


I just keep thinking how it now costs 10 bob to post a first class letter!

[Redroger]

I just keep thinking how it now costs 10 bob to post a first class letter!

12/- (60p) I fear, 50p is for bog standard second class.

[Guy Etchells]

Hi I wonder if someone can help.

I've just found an article regarding an ancestor which involved him suing another person for none payment of a debt.  The amount at the time in the 1890's was 39 pounds, 17 shillings and tuppence.

How much roughly would that be in today's terms?

 Another issue involved the threat to sue for slander for 200 pounds - again in the same or following year - how much would that equate to please?

A rough estimate would suffice.

Yours curiously.
J.A.

If you compare the sums with a years wage for a butler and a parlour maid it it a sizable sum.
A butler would get between £50 and £60 per year.
A parlour maid £20 per year.
Cheers
Guy

[Mavals]

Redrooger - quite right, I never could do the maths!!

[Rena]

I used this website for converting the value of a 1617 Inventory:-

http://measuringworth.com/calculators/ppoweruk/

[Guy Etchells]

Unfortunately none of the conversion sites will give accurate values, there are too many variables.

Take the Measuring Worth site as an example :

£50 in 1890 could be equivalent to £356 or even £955 in 1970 depending on what one takes into account.

Going back even further to 1500:
£50 could be equivalent to £2,690 or £14,000 in 1970.

By using different variables on the same Measuring Worth site the "value" of £50 in 1500 to 1970 varied between
£2,690 and £473,000.

One may as well pluck any number out of thin air.

Such sites are good for specific economic calculations but have no real relevance for the family historian.
Cheers
Guy

[Redroger]

True Guy, the 1612 version of the Shopping basket used to measure the rate of inflation etc. didn't include margarine and DVDs. There was not even a shopping basket at that time. Invented around 1950 I think.

[Rena]

Unfortunately none of the conversion sites will give accurate values, there are too many variables.

One may as well pluck any number out of thin air.

Such sites are good for specific economic calculations but have no real relevance for the family historian.
Cheers
Guy

.
makes good reading though