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What could I buy in 1853 with my 1/2 cent?
holeinone1972
Posts: 5,368 ✭✭✭
Is there a website somewhere showing what things cost in 1853?
I got a new 1/2 cent today and my wife asks , "What good is that? What could anybody ever do with 1/2 a cent?"
So now I need to be able to tell her?
Any help?
Rob
I got a new 1/2 cent today and my wife asks , "What good is that? What could anybody ever do with 1/2 a cent?"
So now I need to be able to tell her?
Any help?
Rob
0
Comments
<< <i>An 1852 1/2 cent
Yuck, Yuck, Yuck!
Here are some historical prices from that year (in San Antonio, TX).
Pork, 11 cents/lb
Bacon, 12 1/2-15 cents/lb
Salt beef, 8 1/2-9 cents/lb
Fresh beef, 4 1/2-5 cents/lb
Flour, 4 /14 cents (superfine)-5 cents (extra fine)/lb
Hard bread, 9-10 cents/lb
Beans, 10 1/2cents/quart
Rice, 8-10 cents/lb
Coffee, 12 1/2 (Rio) to 18 (Java) cents/lb
Sugar, 7 1/2-8 cents for "Louisiana brown"/lb
Vinegar, 6 1/4 cents/quart"
---The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, October 1947 (p. 170)
Link
60 years into this hobby and I'm still working on my Lincoln set!
Didn't someone here post a web site that had this
information on it for different eras. I thought I had
it saved in my "Favorites" file, but I can't find it now.
~
"America suffers today from too much pluribus and not enough unum.".....Arthur Schlesinger Jr.
You could probably get a cup of coffee or a piece of candy or something small for a half cent. Back east, anyway.
Today, what can you buy with one cent? I cannot think of anything.
What can you buy with a nickel? I'm drawing a blank.
A dime? (okay that is easy...one piece of Bazooka Bubble Gum)
It seems like most candy vending machines start at a quarter nowadays.
<< <i>By 1853 the 1/2 Cent couldn't buy anything, but the copper content alone was worth more than the face value. It was about this time that discussions of a serious nature began about the discontinuance of this denomination. >>
it might not have bought anything but when you price something
at 12 1/2 cents it is a needed coin for commerce!
<< By 1853 the 1/2 Cent couldn't buy anything, but the copper content alone was worth more than the face value. It was about this time that discussions of a serious nature began about the discontinuance of this denomination. >>
it might not have bought anything but when you price something
at 12 1/2 cents it is a needed coin for commerce!
Unfortunately no in both cases. The intrinsic value of the cent and half cent in 1853 was
below face value. The problem was that the private companies who made the planchets
had to charge for their services and in 1851 the combined costs did exceed face value.
The half cent had nothing to do with the 12 1/2 cent prices commonly seen in the 19th
century. This was the legal value of the Spanish (or Mexican) silver one real coin, which
circulated widely in this country prior to being demonetized in 1857.
Denga
<< <i>fc April 09, 2009
<< By 1853 the 1/2 Cent couldn't buy anything, but the copper content alone was worth more than the face value. It was about this time that discussions of a serious nature began about the discontinuance of this denomination. >>
it might not have bought anything but when you price something
at 12 1/2 cents it is a needed coin for commerce!
Unfortunately no in both cases. The intrinsic value of the cent and half cent in 1853 was
below face value. The problem was that the private companies who made the planchets
had to charge for their services and in 1851 the combined costs did exceed face value.
The half cent had nothing to do with the 12 1/2 cent prices commonly seen in the 19th
century. This was the legal value of the Spanish (or Mexican) silver one real coin, which
circulated widely in this country prior to being demonetized in 1857.
Denga >>
so the silver one real coin was worth 12 1/2 cents or 1/2 cent?
i am asking because i picked that value out of the list at random.
i could have easily picked 7 1/2 cents or anything with 1/2 in it.
thanks for clarifying.
<< <i>so the silver one real coin was worth 12 1/2 cents or 1/2 cent? >>
12-1/2 cents. One "bit" or 1/8 of the 8 Reales coin, which was also legal tender even when cut up.
Remember that "two bits" is 25 cents.
60 years into this hobby and I'm still working on my Lincoln set!
<< <i>
<< <i>so the silver one real coin was worth 12 1/2 cents or 1/2 cent? >>
12-1/2 cents. One "bit" or 1/8 of the 8 Reales coin, which was also legal tender even when cut up.
Remember that "two bits" is 25 cents. >>
hm. i knew that but did not connect the dots.
"shave and a hair cut, two bits"
geez, i am showing my age or i listen to too much old time radio.
well, cutting up that coin allowed one to make change but how do you
make change for:
Beans, 10 1/2cents/quart
or
Vinegar, 6 1/4 cents/quart
???
<< so the silver one real coin was worth 12 1/2 cents or 1/2 cent? >>
12-1/2 cents. One "bit" or 1/8 of the 8 Reales coin, which was also legal tender even when cut up.
Remember that "two bits" is 25 cents. >>
hm. i knew that but did not connect the dots.
"shave and a hair cut, two bits" geez, i am showing my age or i listen to too much old time radio.
well, cutting up that coin allowed one to make change but how do you make change for:
Beans, 10 1/2cents/quart or Vinegar, 6 1/4 cents/quart ???
A good point. The 10.5 cent price would require a half cent under normal circumstances. On the
other hand the 6.25 cent coin (6 1/4 cents) was the legal equivalent of the silver half real, another
Spanish coin that circulated in this country.
Denga
<< <i>Taking inflation into consideration, a 1/2 cent is the equivalent of about $13 today...
Nahhh.... more like 13 cents, not 13 dollars.
60 years into this hobby and I'm still working on my Lincoln set!
<< <i>
<< <i>Taking inflation into consideration, a 1/2 cent is the equivalent of about $13 today...
Nahhh.... more like 13 cents, not 13 dollars. >>
droopyd - give it a shot here
<< <i>fc April 09, 2009
<< so the silver one real coin was worth 12 1/2 cents or 1/2 cent? >>
12-1/2 cents. One "bit" or 1/8 of the 8 Reales coin, which was also legal tender even when cut up.
Remember that "two bits" is 25 cents. >>
hm. i knew that but did not connect the dots.
"shave and a hair cut, two bits" geez, i am showing my age or i listen to too much old time radio.
well, cutting up that coin allowed one to make change but how do you make change for:
Beans, 10 1/2cents/quart or Vinegar, 6 1/4 cents/quart ???
A good point. The 10.5 cent price would require a half cent under normal circumstances. On the
other hand the 6.25 cent coin (6 1/4 cents) was the legal equivalent of the silver half real, another
Spanish coin that circulated in this country.
Denga >>
well once again you nicely explained the 6 1/4 example but the 10 1/2
does seem to call for a half cent. I cannot imagine the US minting them
unless commerce at one point called for it.
I wonder if in a 100 years this same discussion will arise over the 1 cent coin.
so, your half cent was a little less than a quarter is valued today.
Steve
<< <i>
<< <i>
<< <i>Taking inflation into consideration, a 1/2 cent is the equivalent of about $13 today...
Nahhh.... more like 13 cents, not 13 dollars. >>
droopyd - give it a shot here
I did. Exact same site. I came up with $0.005 in 1853 (1/2 cent) = $0.13 in 2008 (13 cents).
60 years into this hobby and I'm still working on my Lincoln set!
<< <i>
<< <i>
<< <i>
<< <i>Taking inflation into consideration, a 1/2 cent is the equivalent of about $13 today...
Nahhh.... more like 13 cents, not 13 dollars. >>
droopyd - give it a shot here
I did. Exact same site. I came up with $0.005 in 1853 (1/2 cent) = $0.13 in 2008 (13 cents). >>
Oh wow! Just realized I was doing 1/2 dollar!
I imagine you could buy five nails. (didn't ten penny nails cost 10 for 1 cent, so with 1/2 cent, one could buy 5 nails)
Now I get it!
Garrow
<< <i>I find questions like this interesting. "What was it worth back then?"
You could probably get a cup of coffee or a piece of candy or something small for a half cent. Back east, anyway.
Today, what can you buy with one cent? I cannot think of anything.
What can you buy with a nickel? I'm drawing a blank.
A dime? (okay that is easy...one piece of Bazooka Bubble Gum)
It seems like most candy vending machines start at a quarter nowadays. >>
A whole dime for a piece of Bazooka these days? Now that makes me feel old... back in the late 50's and early sixties when I was a kid... it was 1c a piece...
Now someone please explain to me exactly why inflation and annual cost-of-living adjustments are an accepted part of our economy? In plain English...so a kid chewing a piece of Bazooka gum could understand...
<< <i>Now someone please explain to me exactly why inflation and annual cost-of-living adjustments are an accepted part of our economy? In plain English...so a kid chewing a piece of Bazooka gum could understand... >>
Economies grow as populations grow. As there are more people, more is produced and consumed. In classic economic study, increases in both supply and demand will tend to increase prices because population growth tends to outstrip growth in resources.
Also, the structure of a capitalist economic system demands that the economy grow in order to sustain itself (i.e., by increasing capital). Profits (in the aggregate) are dependent on broad-based economic growth affecting most sectors of the economy. Maintaining increasing profits will also tend to increase prices.
60 years into this hobby and I'm still working on my Lincoln set!
Who might have carried it in his pocket before the Civil War?
Was it ever thrown down in a saloon as payment for a bet?
How many times did it change hands?
A coin in such a high grade didn't circulate much, was it part of the collection
of someone high up in government?
Tell her to love the history!
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century. This was the legal value of the Spanish (or Mexican) silver one real coin, which
circulated widely in this country prior to being demonetized in 1857.>>
"Nothing" is too strong a word. If you bought a ten cent item and paid with a 12 1/2 piece, you need a half cent for change. I think you could make an arguement the 12 1/2 piece is the reason that the half cent existed.
That is certainly the reason given in Canada for the existence of the only circulating half cent coin (Nova Scotia). In Halifax (and Halifax only)currency a British six pence was worth 12 1/2 cents. (In Newfoundland it was worth 12 cents and just a little over 12 cents for the other provinces.)