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General => The Common Room => Topic started by: Ozdot on Monday 05 March 18 03:49 GMT (UK)

Title: Monetary value now of English pounds.
Post by: Ozdot on Monday 05 March 18 03:49 GMT (UK)
Hi, I'm wondering if anyone can tell me - approximately - the current value of 2116 pounds in 1891.  This was from my great grandfather's will.
Thanks.
Title: Re: Monetary value now of English pounds.
Post by: Billyblue on Monday 05 March 18 06:18 GMT (UK)
Try this site:
https://www.measuringworth.com/ukcompare/relativevalue.php

Depending on what you want to do with it, it seems it can range from 212,000 pounds to, wait for it - 2,848,000 pounds  ??? ???

Sounds a bizarre difference!

Dawn M
Title: Re: Monetary value now of English pounds.
Post by: Ozdot on Monday 05 March 18 09:16 GMT (UK)
Hi, Dawn,
Thanks very much for being so prompt with your answer to my query.
Wow!!  I had no idea it was anywhere near that figure - I would go for the two hundred thousand pound mark.
No, I thought it may have been somewhere over fifty thousand.
Quite a nice little nest egg for my grandmother and her two sisters.  It explains  a lot.
Cheers,
Ozdot.
Title: Re: Monetary value now of English pounds.
Post by: rosie99 on Monday 05 March 18 13:01 GMT (UK)
National archives has a converter but to 2005 rates

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/currency/results.asp#mid

In 1890, £2,116 0s 0d would have the same spending worth of 2005's     £126,727 .24p

Title: Re: Monetary value now of English pounds.
Post by: AntonyMMM on Monday 05 March 18 13:18 GMT (UK)
There isn't really an exact equivalent - it depends on whether you measure against inflation (and if so, which measure), against wages or against purchasing power. All will give you very different answers, sometimes by huge factors.

But - definitely a very respectable sum to leave at that time.

Title: Re: Monetary value now of English pounds.
Post by: ShaunJ on Monday 05 March 18 14:16 GMT (UK)
At 3d a pint, £1 would have bought 80 pints of beer in 1891. To buy the same amount of beer in a pub today would cost at least £250.

So on the basis of the beer index, £2,116 in 1891 would be the equivalent of £529,000 today.
Title: Re: Monetary value now of English pounds.
Post by: Ozdot on Tuesday 06 March 18 04:05 GMT (UK)
Thanks Rosie, Antony and Shaun.  That gives me an idea of the bequest.
A nice little nest egg for my grandmother and her two sisters.
Cheers,
Dot.