Historical Exchange Rates

[rpeddie]

Not sure this is to go in this section but ill give it a bash.

Just wondering if anyone has any knowledge of historical Exchange rates going back say 100-300 years and how it was worked back when currencies were all based on silver/gold standards?

What i have found so far seems far from intuitive where for the dollar for instance, what i would have expected is the same weight of silver for the same weight of silver back then,

which in a perfect world being say $1 for 5 shillings (going by that they were both roughly an ounce of silver each,give or take silver content of american dollar i think was 0.900)

Just wondering if there are any good explanations for this or carry over logic when looking at other countries silver/gold coins and how they would have stacked up with each other back in the day

[azda]

Was just looking through your website Mr Peddie, can i just point you towards the CGS table as you have a CGS 78 on your website and have said its ABU, but that grading term does'nt start until at least a CGS 85 grade

100 FDC MS70

99 FDC MS70

98 FDC MS70

97 FDC MS70

96 FDC M69

95 FDC MS 68 -69

94 AFDC MS68

93 AFDC MS 67 -68

92 AFDC MS67

91 AFDC MS66 -67

90 NFDC MS 66

88 BU -NFDC MS65 -66

85 Choice UNC - BU MS 65

82 Choice UNC MS 64 -65

80 Choice UNC MS 64

78 UNC MS 63 -64

75 UNC or near so MS 62 - 63

70 AU MS60 -61

65 GEF MS60 -61

60 EF AU58 - MS60

55 NEF AU55

50 GVF AU55

45 GVF AU 53

40 VF AU 50

35 NVF EF 45

30 GF EF 40

25 GF F35

20 F F30

15 NF

10 VG

8 VG

5 GOOD

4 FAIR

3 FAIR

2 FAIR

1 FAIR

Edited May 27, 2014 by azda

[rpeddie]

thanks for the info ill update it when i first get a chance

[azda]

There's also very few prices avaliable. I think I saw 1 price for a 1902 Crown at £450? Did'nt see anymore

[TomGoodheart]

No detailed knowledge I'm afraid. Though I do know that in the Tudor period laws were passed that gave the exchange rates for various European (and Scottish) currencies against ours. Presumably based on the fineness of silver.

I also seem to remember that in the days of Edward I foreign merchants brought debased silver coin ('esterlings' also known as 'crockards' or 'pollards') into the country and exported our better quality coin for melting.

As a result the law was changed to require them to bring silver into the country. This would then be minted (or more likely exchanged for already minted coin) at a rate favourable to the English exchequer which the merchants would then have to spend on goods they wished to buy.

Basically the state has kept a close control on exchange rates for a every long time!

Oh, and if anyone is curious about recent exchange rates (I use it to calculate overseas auction prices for coins sold a few years ago) this site might be of interest: http://www.x-rates.com/historical/

.

Edited May 27, 2014 by TomGoodheart

[Colin G.]

Was just looking through your website Mr Peddie, can i just point you towards the CGS table as you have a CGS 78 on your website and have said its ABU, but that grading term does'nt start until at least a CGS 85 grade

Dave I would not get too carried away with the CGS definitions, that was why they dropped back to numbers and removed the accompanying descriptive grade from the slabs. There are certainly examples of coins that would be described as Unc with full lustre that may not make it into the 85+ category due to a weaker strike, carbon spot or visible bag marks. The below coin is a prime example, it has full lustre, but has some light surface marks across the neck and is weak across the legs of Britannia. I thought this was a harsh grade for this coin.....I would have had no doubts describing this coin as BUNC if I was to sell it.

http://www.coingradingservices.co.uk/?uin=0019880&page=coin_verification&Submit=Verify

[Paulus]

This is the coin that Colin has linked to, for those that do not wish to / cannot log in to CGS (it is graded 75):

[scott]

I stumbled across this oddity a few months ago, which may or may not fit into this thread

French coin weight, however after some digging it turns out this was converted to 10s 6D weight for use over here.

[rpeddie]

thats the sort of thing am looking for

from that whats the date and what was the weight originally used for with regards to french silver

then can see how the different silver weights match up

[rpeddie]

date being between

14 May 1643 1 September 1715

if it is Louis 14?

quite a gap but its a time zone

[rpeddie]

im spamming but just thinking aloud

also being accurate it would need to assume that the people who made the weight in France and the ones who changed it to British weren't separated by a great deal in time

no way to tell the second part as far as i can see there's no date for the British part

[scott]

the weight in UK is a Half Guinea, the French equivilant is the 1 pistol, earliest it could be is William III, although the style of the engraved text looks to be Georgean, so possibly as late as George II

not found any referance the the marks under bust, seens + as well as a star.

Edited May 28, 2014 by scott

[HistoricCoinage]

date being between

14 May 1643 1 September 1715

if it is Louis 14?

quite a gap but its a time zone

Not a huge gap. Assuming it was made c.1710 and the coin weight appears to date from 1750s-1770s then it's not that far.

However, it could conceivably be one of the English-made ones for the French issues but a trader has subsequently altered it to suit British coins.