The value of pre-modern currencies.

[Camerus]

Surely it makes the most sense to compare vs. other people's incomes living at the same time and same society.  That way, you'll always be comparing apples to apples.

In regards to the layman's need to convert it.... It's usually pretty easy to get a rough sense of what the person's income means for them by the standards of their society, and that is good enough for laymen.  Thus Mr. Darcy has his own estate, and his yearly income makes Elizabeth Bennett all wet when she finds out, so it's pretty safe to conclude it's a rather significant sum.

[Ideologue]

Hmph.  War never changes.

[The Brain]

200,000 dollars was a lot of money. Apparently they were gonna have to earn it.

[garbon]

In regards to the layman's need to convert it.... It's usually pretty easy to get a rough sense of what the person's income means for them by the standards of their society, and that is good enough for laymen.  Thus Mr. Darcy has his own estate, and his yearly income makes Elizabeth Bennett all wet when she finds out, so it's pretty safe to conclude it's a rather significant sum.

Yeah which is why we don't actually need to convert it. You can take enough cues from how the characters react to the sums.

[garbon]

To be honest, I don't really know. I usually just gloss over any mention of currency in works

No, we know this.

I'm missing the joke.

[Ideologue]

Mild swipe at your anti-minwage agitprop.

[jimmy olsen]

In regards to the layman's need to convert it.... It's usually pretty easy to get a rough sense of what the person's income means for them by the standards of their society, and that is good enough for laymen.  Thus Mr. Darcy has his own estate, and his yearly income makes Elizabeth Bennett all wet when she finds out, so it's pretty safe to conclude it's a rather significant sum.

Yeah which is why we don't actually need to convert it. You can take enough cues from how the characters react to the sums.

I need to know exactly how much Pemberly estate would fetch on the open market in Deutschmarks circa 1987! 

[garbon]

I don't think the edit made it better.

[Queequeg]

I've always found them suspect.  Coinage was going to have a different meaning in Venice than in rural Bosnia in the 17th Century, and the 18th Century Dutch and Chinese had different problems of scarcity. 

[MadImmortalMan]

My desk calendar has program/tickets of the World Series 1925 depicted today. Ticket prices: Lower Grandstand $5.50, Center Field Pavillion $3.30.

I have a feeling that it was pretty big money at the time.

Approximately $73.59 and $44.15 in 2013 dollars.


Baseball got more expensive.

[Razgovory]

I've always found them suspect.  Coinage was going to have a different meaning in Venice than in rural Bosnia in the 17th Century, and the 18th Century Dutch and Chinese had different problems of scarcity.

Translating modern monies to monies from 150 years ago has enough pitfalls.  Trying to figure out pre-modern currency is a fool's errand.  It's like trying to figure out how many viking swords are equivalent to an ICBM.

[Tonitrus]

It's like trying to figure out how many viking swords are equivalent to an ICBM.

An ICBM can only be used once.  Swing one sword enough times, and you can kill more people 

[grumbler]

One can translate pre-modern currencies into modern equivalents.  There are pitfalls, of course, but it can be done meaningfully.  While many commonly-accepted modern uses for money would be meaningless in, say, 1820 (medical care or home climate control, for instance), many others would not (the cost of a day of skilled labor, or six ounces of good whiskey, or x amount of wine).  The chief problem is in the interpretation, not the translation.

Ultimately, though, I think garbon is right:  it is better to rely on the reactions of contemporaries than to go through then bother of a translation that you might then misinterpret.

[Admiral Yi]

Approximately $73.59 and $44.15 in 2013 dollars.


Baseball got more expensive.

Outfield seats now cost more than $44?  When did this happen? 

[Eddie Teach]

That was for the World Series. Cheapest tickets this year were just under $300.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jesselawrence/2013/10/20/red-sox-world-series-tickets-81-higher-than-cardinals-tickets-for-fall-classic/