Re: [CR]Making sense of old British prices

(Example: Events:Cirque du Cyclisme:2002)

Date: Thu, 27 Nov 2008 11:35:37 -0700
From: "Mitch Harris" <mitch.harris@gmail.com>
To: "Dmitry Yaitskov" <dima@rogers.com>
Subject: Re: [CR]Making sense of old British prices
In-Reply-To: <372402834.20081127131354@rogers.com>
References: <372402834.20081127131354@rogers.com>
cc: Classic Rendezvous <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shilling To save British listers the un-necessary flash back, here's an aswer:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shilling

" 1/6d as 1 shilling and sixpence (often pronounced "one and six")"

"In the United Kingdom, a shilling was a coin used from the reign of Henry VII[citation needed] until decimalisation in 1971. Before decimalisation, there were twenty shillings to the pound and twelve pence to the shilling, and thus 240 pence to the pound."

20s per pound would sugget that a shilling was roughly worth 5 pence today, but that won't seem right when you compare what a shilling used to buy to what 5 pence buys today. That's partly because the pound fell a lot in value from the late70s/early 80s on. Before that a pound was worth about two and a half bucks and so a shilling was more like a quarter in value. And back then in the US a quarter would still buy you something.

Mitch Harris Little Rock Canyon, Utah, USA

On Thu, Nov 27, 2008 at 11:13 AM, Dmitry Yaitskov <dima@rogers.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> In a British catalog from 1950-ies I see prices such as "16/-" or
> "13/6" or "17/11". Could some kind soul explain to me what do those
> numbers mean? Thanks.
>
> --
> Cheers,
> Dmitry Yaitskov,
> Toronto, Canada.