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The Worth of our Coins
Zoins
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Back in 1938, comic books were a dime and we had coins worth 10 times that.
Now, comic books are $3.99 and our top coin only covers 25% of that! If you only consider coins that circulate, our top coin is the quarter and only covers 1/16 of a comic book!
A comic book today is worth 40 comic books in 1938!
Back in 1938, a kid could buy a comic book with a dime. What can a kid buy with a dime today?
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And minimum wage was 25c in 1938. It would take two 8 hour days to but those 40 comic books.
It's because our coinage has no intrinsic value. If you had a silver quarter, that would buy a new comic book. And more than a gallon of gasoline.
A silver dime can still buy just about any new comic book
It is why I love old worn coins, what did this buy in its life as it looks like it circulated well into the 20th Cen?
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11.5$ Southern Dollars, The little “Big Easy” set
Yes, but they are collectibles now, and not used for commerce.
So are 10c comic books
11.5$ Southern Dollars, The little “Big Easy” set
But we're talking about $3.99 comic books for today
This thread is about contemporary value, e.g. 1938 things in 1938 and 2020 things in 2020.
Now I know why I lost interest in the adventures of Archie and Jughead.........My allowance can't cover the cost.
So, a kid could buy 20 comic books in a day of work in 1938.
With minimum wage at $7.25 today, you could by 14.5 comic books with a day of work now.
With the plan to increase minimum wage to $15, you could buy 30 comic books with a day of work.
Today, a dime can't even buy PENNY CANDY!!
If you still had a job, of course.
Lance.
Many people I knew grew up with paper routes as their first job. We don't even need the minimum wage to go up for that job to disappear.
Buying a comic book in 1938 with $1: Here's 90 cents in change or, what 9 more comic books would you like?
Buying a comic book in 2021 with $1: Sorry, you need 3 more!
The store up the street used to sell small bag of candy for a nickel and some time a dime. Yes in old
And since they probably didn't print funny money back then, there was little inflation. In the mid to late 1960's, I was buying comic books for 12 cents out of the vending machine at Cunningham's Drug Store. A 2 cent price increase from 1938.
I had no idea comic books are that expensive now.... Sure, they certainly would not still be a dime (what I used to pay), but $3.99? I used to get at least one comic book a week... usually the day after my weekly paper route. Wish I had those old comics today....
Cheers, RickO
--- Back in 1938, comic books were a dime.
--- And minimum wage was 25c in 1938.
2020 --- comic book is $3.99.
Ohio minimum wage is $8.55.
that means in 1938 I could buy 2.50 comic books with one hour of minimum wage labor.
that means in 2020 I could buy 2.14 comic books with one hour of minimum wage labor.
that tells me that either:
--- comic books are a little over-priced.
--- the minimum wage needs to go up a little.
as to the OP's point, it's sort of silly and this We need new coin denominations and to retire the penny blah blah that comes around regularly will eventually happen. right now, go tell people we're gonna do that and watch what happens.
The thing that's missing here is that coin collectors collect coins
A 2021 dime is just worth much less than a 1938 dime.
Of course, we could say that it's silly for coin collectors to care about the monetary value of their coins.
I still see no point.
Here's another way to look at this.
People are just much more efficient at earning dime values in 2021.
In 1938, one had to work 24 minutes to make a dime at minimum wage.
In 2021, one has to work just 50 seconds to make a dime at minimum wage.
The dime collector in 2021 can have a much larger collection of contemporary dimes than his or her 1938 counterpart. With the same amount of work, the collection can be 29 times the number of dime coins!
looking at how long it takes to make a dime is ridiculous 80 years apart unless you figure for inflation. that's what this whole thing is all about, inflation.
with the Inflation Calculator I used, that Dime in 1938 is worth $1.84 today. working at today's minimum wage for that same 24 minutes yields pretty close to the same thing.
This large ancient coin from Egypt (27 grams) could have purchased 100 sheep in antiquity. I don't have anywhere near enough grass so I'll stick with the low-maintenance coin:
Beautiful coin and very interesting comparison. A lamb can be purchased for $75 today so 100 lambs could be $7,500. With gold at $1,850 an ounce, that coin's gold value could buy 21 young sheep today! Of course the coin is worth much more as a collectible but it's interesting to think about its intrinsic value.