The 1860 "greysheet" has top rarity prices. What did a house cost?

morgannut2

A new feature at PCGS is a computer imaged copy of a published summery of coin auction results through 1860. The last page of the first "greysheet" shows a top price list with ranges from around $25 for a 1839 "Silver Dollar" to the $45-$60 area for some 1792 issues and patterns. Of course there's the ordinary cheapo worn "Chain Link" cents for $6 or less for the less prosperous! My question is (since these were sold in downtown Philly and NYC) what was the cost of the average brick townhouse there-- then verses now? I'm have no concept of what a dollar meant then. The first income tax rolls of the Civil War might show some typical income amounts by job type would mean something but I don't know where to look. Better ideas? It is NEAT price list!

tjkillian

A house in the new suburbs of Brooklyn cost $800.00. A soldier in the army made $11.00/month. A bricklayer who was very skilled made $2.50/day.

In 1849, a trip on a boat to San Francisco from New York cost $500.00

Tom

BillJones

Circa 1900, my great grand parents built a full sized Victorian house in a small Delaware town for less than $2,000. Today the same house, which is not a very good shape, is on the market for $499,000.

Sure cheap coin prices from days gone by look great, but everything is relative. Our forefathers had to work hard and save or be wealthy at the time to buy those coins at those prices. And since the coin market was nothing like what it is today, getting your money out of a coin investment was more difficult. I've seen that change since I started collecting coins seriously in the early 1960s.

Sure prices from the "good old days" look low, but in a "real" (buying power) sense they are not nearly as low as they would seem to be by the numbers.

morgannut2

Thanks guys, I that gives me a feel for what the prices mean. By the way, got a PM the daily U.S.Government allowed Cost of Living was $0.25. (Was that someone in the Whitehouse??)---join us George!!

mrearlygold

Does anyone know when the 1st Time Machine will be coming out?

You reckon the government will make seat belts mandatory in those too?


Tom