It is a rather quixotic venture to compare values and currencies between "then" and "now", but two esteemed economists take a stab at on their web site http://measuringworth.com/ I used this as a source in my recent article on two bachelor brothers of Lancaster County who freed their 44 slaves in 1856 and sent them to Liberia, and also furnished them with $15,000 for supplies upon their arrival. The value of the slaves and the $15,000 came out to be roughly $800,000 in today's money. It is therefore no surprise that there were no witnesses to their respective wills and it ended up in chancery court--but not because of this. Rather, it was because between the two of them, they left FIVE wills and it was, of all things, the real estate that could not be sorted out. As to currency in the colonies. The Pound sterling was worth roughly 75% of what it was worth in England. But, coinage in those days was actually based on the value of metal from which it was minted. You could chop up a coin in "x" amount of pieces and put a value on that. Or just melt it down. Coinage and currency were rare commodities in the colonies, which is why things were so often valued in pounds of tobacco. That, of course, was worth what it would fetch in England at any given time. And, why almost everything was done on credit and also why so many people ended up broke. Instead of banks, there were tobacco warehouses where the factors kept ledgers of who owed what to whom. This is a very interesting topic and there are quite possibly some good articles written on it. If not, I should write one. (That of course would take a long time.) I only write this in terms of things I know off the top of my head from various research. So, please don't take me as any sort of authority on this topic. I only just enough to be dangerous. Craig Kilby