How much is a British Half Crown worth in the mid
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ZolotoyRetriever — 1 year ago(December 24, 2024 09:24 PM)
A half-crown was 2 Shillings and 6 Pence which, adjusted for inflation, equates to about $22.00 give or take in today’s dollars. But it's hard to say what the purchasing power of that was, without knowing what the average prices were for, say, food, rent, clothing etc. back in those days.
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DrakeStraw — 1 year ago(December 25, 2024 01:03 AM)
A half crown was worth a lot more than $22. Cratchit was making about a crown each week. He needed more than that to keep Tiny Tim in crutches.
Bob Cratchit's salary is £15 per year, significantly lower than the average clerk's salary. • The average clerk's salary in the 1840s was around £30-£40 per year
https://gbtimes.com/how-much-money-did-bob-cratchit-make/
There's something wrong with the article. How can Tiny Tim be earning £13/yr? That's almost as much as Bob makes. Was Tim a beggar?
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ZolotoyRetriever — 1 year ago(December 25, 2024 01:35 AM)
I'm going by an online inflation calculator (see link below), which gives me the inflation-adjusted value of one British pound of 1843 in 2025 terms (since we're only days away from 2025, I used that instead of 2024). I get this:
£1 in 1843 is worth £162.37 today.
Since a Half-crown is 2 shillings 6 pence, that equals 1/8 of a pound, so 1/8 of £162.37 is £20.3.
*I kind of goofed up in my previous post, where I wrote "$22.00 give or take in today’s dollars." I meant to write it in pounds, not dollars. I also meant to write 20, not 22.
Mea culpa
.
In any case, converting £20.3 to dollars using today's currency exchange rates, one British pound is equal to 1.25 U.S. Dollars, so that Half-crown would be worth about $25.38 today, give or take.
https://www.in2013dollars.com/uk/inflation/1843?amount=1 -
DrakeStraw — 1 year ago(December 25, 2024 01:57 AM)
I no longer trust the link I cited. Another source says Cratchit made 15 shillings a week. That seems to be what I remember from reading the book. That's about £40/yr. so maybe Cratchit wasn't underpaid at all and Tiny Tim's £13/yr. from begging is more plausible.
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ZolotoyRetriever — 1 year ago(December 25, 2024 02:13 AM)
According to Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol," Bob Cratchit was paid 15 shillings per week. 15 X 52 weeks in a year = 780 shillings per year. There are (or were) 20 shillings per Pound, so 780 divided by 20 = 39 Pounds/year.
Using that inflation calculator I mentioned above, 39 Pounds in 1843 is worth £6,332.36 today, adjusted for inflation. Converting to U.S. Dollars is 6,332.36 X 1.25 = $7,915.45 a year.
https://www.in2013dollars.com/uk/inflation/1843?amount=39 -
DrakeStraw — 1 year ago(December 25, 2024 03:47 AM)
…$7,915.45 a year.
That figure is low considering what you could buy for a shilling in 1843: two loaves of bread or a pint at a pub. That's like a nickel beer deal today.
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