What could you buy with 1/3 Farthing in 1880's?

[palves 0]

Hi,

This is my last acquisition and I am very happy with it. Sorry for the picture, but the coin is so small that I struggled, the actual colour is chocolate, yum...

When looking at the coin I was amazed with the detail in such small coin and I was wondering what could you actually buy at the time with 1/3 Farthing? any ideas?

Thanks

PA

from Portugal...

[Red Riley 2]

Hi,

This is my last acquisition and I am very happy with it. Sorry for the picture, but the coin is so small that I struggled, the actual colour is chocolate, yum...

When looking at the coin I was amazed with the detail in such small coin and I was wondering what could you actually buy at the time with 1/3 Farthing? any ideas?

Thanks

PA

from Portugal...

Well, nothing in the UK, they were minted purely for Malta where they replaced a local coin called the 'granno'. Even allowing for the relative poverty of Malta, their purchasing power must have been minute.

Looks a nice coin and a very good picture.

[Geoff T 3]

Hi,

This is my last acquisition and I am very happy with it. Sorry for the picture, but the coin is so small that I struggled, the actual colour is chocolate, yum...

When looking at the coin I was amazed with the detail in such small coin and I was wondering what could you actually buy at the time with 1/3 Farthing? any ideas?

Thanks

PA

from Portugal...

Hi Palves - Try this site http://www.measuringworth.com/ppoweruk/ Geoff

[Peter 615]

Hi,

This is my last acquisition and I am very happy with it. Sorry for the picture, but the coin is so small that I struggled, the actual colour is chocolate, yum...

When looking at the coin I was amazed with the detail in such small coin and I was wondering what could you actually buy at the time with 1/3 Farthing? any ideas?

Thanks

PA

from Portugal...

Hi Palves - Try this site http://www.measuringworth.com/ppoweruk/ Geoff

Interesting site Geoff....and a cracking coin and photograph.

[RobJ 0]

Hi,

This is my last acquisition and I am very happy with it. Sorry for the picture, but the coin is so small that I struggled, the actual colour is chocolate, yum...

When looking at the coin I was amazed with the detail in such small coin and I was wondering what could you actually buy at the time with 1/3 Farthing? any ideas?

Thanks

PA

from Portugal...

Nice coin.

I am sure that I read somewhere before that the average wage for a 'Skilled' worker in this country in around that time was somewhere in the region of £50 - £60 per year. However I can't remember if that was converted from L/S/D to a modern equivelant or not.

[Peckris 579]

They weren't issued for use in Britain, but I can't remember offhand exactly where - Ceylon? I'm pretty sure that even back then, a third-farthing wouldn't have got you anything. The farthing was the smallest denom issued in this country.

[Peckris 579]

Nice coin.

I am sure that I read somewhere before that the average wage for a 'Skilled' worker in this country in around that time was somewhere in the region of £50 - £60 per year. However I can't remember if that was converted from L/S/D to a modern equivelant or not.

LOL Rob. £50 was £50 in both £sd and decimal.

[RobJ 0]

LOL Rob. £50 was £50 in both £sd and decimal.

Doh! Of course it is! lol

Sorry, I have done a lot of travelling today and I don't think that my brain has caught up with me yet. lol

[SionGilbey 1]

Hi,

This is my last acquisition and I am very happy with it. Sorry for the picture, but the coin is so small that I struggled, the actual colour is chocolate, yum...

When looking at the coin I was amazed with the detail in such small coin and I was wondering what could you actually buy at the time with 1/3 Farthing? any ideas?

Thanks

PA

from Portugal...

Hi Palves - Try this site http://www.measuringworth.com/ppoweruk/ Geoff

Interesting site Geoff....and a cracking coin and photograph.

If used in Britain it would today have the worth of 3p... still worth more than two of our coins now!

[1949threepence 3,366]

Hi,

This is my last acquisition and I am very happy with it. Sorry for the picture, but the coin is so small that I struggled, the actual colour is chocolate, yum...

When looking at the coin I was amazed with the detail in such small coin and I was wondering what could you actually buy at the time with 1/3 Farthing? any ideas?

Thanks

PA

from Portugal...

Beautiful coin & using the conversion chart kindly supplied by Geoff, I'd say that it was worth the equivalent of about 2p in today's money ~ employing the RPI.

[palves 0]

Thanks for your replies...

I have to say I love this little ones... Now I will be hunting for a quarter farthing. I think will be a bit trickier to get a decent one at a decent price...

Cheers.

PA

[SionGilbey 1]

I agree!

It's always amazed me how they put so much detail into such a small coin... it's brilliant how something so small and delicate were produced to such an amazing standard by Victorian machinery...

[Peckris 579]

If used in Britain it would today have the worth of 3p... still worth more than two of our coins now!

Beautiful coin & using the conversion chart kindly supplied by Geoff, I'd say that it was worth the equivalent of about 2p in today's money ~ employing the RPI.

... which rather begs the question, if it was worth between (the equivalent of) 2p and 3p, why didn't they issue it in the UK? I'm not sure I trust those RPI conversions entirely - for one thing, food (which was the main purchase for the working/poor classes) was much more expensive then than it is now, relatively speaking, so perhaps they wouldn't have needed such small change?

[scott 129]

half farthings were made legal tender. but there were a few other dates in other series not for british issue (1888 groat for example - 120k mintage)

[Red Riley 2]

I'm not sure I trust those RPI conversions entirely - for one thing, food (which was the main purchase for the working/poor classes) was much more expensive then than it is now, relatively speaking, so perhaps they wouldn't have needed such small change?

I think you are right, they are based on such subjective criteria that they are more or less useless. A better comparison would be to estimate what % they represented of National Average Earning (NAE) but such statistics don't go back anything like that far.

However, if the 2p - 3p statistic is anything like correct, in real terms that makes our current decimal penny the lowest value coin ever to circulate in this country (assuming that RPI has doubled since the 1/2p went out of circulation). In America of course, it is worse - the Lincoln cent being worth even less.

[ski 1]

if you work on conversion from pre-decimal to decimal, a farthing was worth 0.1p!!

so this coin is worth 0.03P.........or...........enough for an 1883 jubbly

[Peckris 579]

I'm not sure I trust those RPI conversions entirely - for one thing, food (which was the main purchase for the working/poor classes) was much more expensive then than it is now, relatively speaking, so perhaps they wouldn't have needed such small change?

I think you are right, they are based on such subjective criteria that they are more or less useless. A better comparison would be to estimate what % they represented of National Average Earning (NAE) but such statistics don't go back anything like that far.

However, if the 2p - 3p statistic is anything like correct, in real terms that makes our current decimal penny the lowest value coin ever to circulate in this country (assuming that RPI has doubled since the 1/2p went out of circulation). In America of course, it is worse - the Lincoln cent being worth even less.

Makes you wonder why we don't go down the Italian route of giving out sweets instead of small change! Dentists would be happy ...

if you work on conversion from pre-decimal to decimal, a farthing was worth 0.1p!!

so this coin is worth 0.03P.........or...........enough for an 1883 jubbly

or, if you listen to my great-great-grandfather "...a night out at the Savoy, a hansom cab home and enough left over to tip the driver. Kids today? Don't know they're born!"

[1949threepence 3,366]

... which rather begs the question, if it was worth between (the equivalent of) 2p and 3p, why didn't they issue it in the UK? I'm not sure I trust those RPI conversions entirely - for one thing, food (which was the main purchase for the working/poor classes) was much more expensive then than it is now, relatively speaking, so perhaps they wouldn't have needed such small change?

I don't trust them entirely either, certainly not over such a protracted timescale. Not sure we're really comparing like with like, but a very low value coin whicever way you look at it.

I think you are right, they are based on such subjective criteria that they are more or less useless. A better comparison would be to estimate what % they represented of National Average Earning (NAE) but such statistics don't go back anything like that far.

However, if the 2p - 3p statistic is anything like correct, in real terms that makes our current decimal penny the lowest value coin ever to circulate in this country (assuming that RPI has doubled since the 1/2p went out of circulation). In America of course, it is worse - the Lincoln cent being worth even less.

Interesting point.