billybsr wrote: > Does anyone know, in dollars & cents, what six shillings would be worth? > Shirley in Florida > There were 12 pence in a shilling and 20 shillings in a pound. A pound was worth during the gold standard period about $4.80, making an English pence equal to 2 American pennies. So a shilling was roughly a quarter -- 25 US cents. The actual conversion rate varied (as they do so today), depending on the year. The pound, for instance, was not convertible to gold all through the Napoleonic Wars and only went back on gold in the 1820s. The US "greenback" issued during the Civil War-- so named because its back was green -- was not convertible to gold. The "goldback" was. By about 1870, however, the 4.80 = $1.00 held. From then until 1914. In the 1920s Churchill, as Chancellor of the Exechequer, tried to bring the pound back on gold, but there was a massive currency outflow and a severe recession. After the Second World War, the pound was $2.80, then, in 1967, $2.40, then after 1972, it floated. Now don't ask me what 3 shillings bought. Wages were often 25 cents a day, though. WB