At 05:01 PM 02/23/1999 -0500, Carole Malisiak <malisiak@midohio.net> wrote: >Can someone enlighten me regarding English money, for example, I know >that £ means pounds, but what does s and d stand for? Shillings and ? >How much money is £300 in US Dollars today? How much money was it in >1660? >About how much US money is a £, s, and d? > >Carole Hi, Carole: £ from latin librium (sp?), a pound (same source as "lb.") s from shilling - 20 shillings to a pound d from latin denarius, a penny - 12 pence to a shilling therefore 240 pence to the pound a farthing was 1/4 of a penny, although you didn't ask There were many other monetary values, like ha'penny (half-penny) and the thouroughly confusing guinea (21 shillings). No wonder the English finally gave up and went to decimal currency, although they hung on until relatively recently. Now we have to start worrying about the euro ... Three hundred pounds sterling is roughly $420 today. I haven't checked the exact rate of exchange. At the time of the translation of the King James Bible, the first decade of the 1600's, one penny was roughly a day's wage for unskilled labor. The value of money at any given place and time is a problem; when cash is plentiful and tangible goods scarce, money isn't worth much (inflation). When cash is rare and tangible goods are plentiful, prices are very low (deflation). At both ends of the spectrum, when things get out of hand people resort to barter. These formulae are true regardless of what is going on in the next continent--or the next county! Try comparing the price of a house in rural Arkansas or Vermont, to the same building in Chicago's western suburbs or on Long Island (many other comparisons could be made). Yet we live in the same country, and the currency flows freely between states. Darrell Darrell A. Martin formerly of the Dutton District, Springfield, Vermont currently in exile in Addison, Illinois darrellm@sprynet.com