What would a gold sovereign have got you in 1909?

[crazy hippo]

Hi guys did the curiosity here.

What do you think you would’ve been able to buy with a gold sovereign in 1909?

 

 

[silversword]

What could you get for a pound back then?

[Carpe Diem]

A 2015 sov at Atkinsons for example is £195, that's more than £20k in in 1909!

[watchesandwhisky]

A sovereign has always had a nominal value of a pound but was probably worth more..I doubt you could swap ten florins for a sovereign..

[HighlandTiger]

Couldn't find 1909, but in 1910 these were common prices..

 

So a sovereign could have bought you 96 loaves of bread.....

 

 

 

 

Some typical prices

 

Rent 3s 6d - 5s per week 

 Loaf of bread 2½d 

1 pound butter 1s 2d 

1 pound sugar 3d 

1 pound tea 1s 6d 

20 pounds of potatoes 10d 

1 pound cheese 6d 

1 pound bacon 9d 

1 pound onions 1½d 

Dozen eggs 1s 

1 pound biscuits 8d 

1 pound lard 7d 

1 pound jam 5½d 

1 pound apples 3d 

12 pints milk 3d 

1 pound meat 10d 

Wrights Coal Tar soap 4d per tablet 

Child’s boots 2s 11d 

Letter post 1d 

Swan Vestas matches 1d

[Carpe Diem]

What could you get for a pound back then?

 

What couldn't you get for a pound back then?

[HighlandTiger]

What couldn't you get for a pound back then?

 

Race horses.....you had to pay guineas for them 

[daz]

What couldn't you get for a pound back then?

A widescreen tv

[crazy hippo]

so how much would a sovereign have cost? Was it currency or was it always a bullion coin?

[watchesandwhisky]

I'm interested if you could have swapped 10 florins for a sovereign at the time, they do say a tenth of a pound.. that would have been just over three ounces silver for a sovereign.

[Fluttershy]

if a sov is 1/4 Oz and 3Oz silver has 12 quarters in it, its probably not far off the old GSR of 15:1 I supose there was also a premium on the making of the 3 silver coins that might accont for the missing 3/4?

 

 

just a thought

[crazy hippo]

so how much would a sovereign have cost? Was it currency or was it always a bullion coin?

Answered my own question by reading the royal mint website, apparently a gold sovereign  was 20 shillings. So a months rent at the tope end using the prices HT kindly gave.

 

A months rent is also the price of a good tailored suit, which i know is the standard value of a gold coin. so in essence the value of a sovereign should be about a £1-2000 putting an oz in at about 4-8 grand. by which standards, gold is super cheap right now.

 

​please correct me if I’m wrong.

[HighlandTiger]

Answered my own question by reading the royal mint website, apparently a gold sovereign  was 20 shillings. So a months rent at the tope end using the prices HT kindly gave.

 

A months rent is also the price of a good tailored suit, which i know is the standard value of a gold coin. so in essence the value of a sovereign should be about a £1-2000 putting an oz in at about 4-8 grand. by which standards, gold is super cheap right now.

 

​please correct me if I’m wrong.

 

With regards to the Suit quote, they are referring to an ounce of gold, not a sovereign

[Cointreau]

Good question CH. I have always thought that gold would go much further in past times.

And personally a tailoured suit is not worthy of an ounce of gold in my opinion.

[BaldyBob]

What I am taking from this thread, and the other one currently running about gold, is that Gold has pretty much held its value. Fiat currency on the other hand, has been devalued.

 

So with that in mind, how much was silver worth in 1900?

[Cointreau]

Silver is a different animal entirely. For about 2000 years a labourer would expect to be paid roughly 3 grams of silver a day.

 

http://commodityhq.com/2012/a-brief-2000-year-history-of-silver-prices/

Edited November 8, 2014 by Cointreau

[silversword]

Good question CH. I have always thought that gold would go much further in past times.

And personally a tailoured suit is not worthy of an ounce of gold in my opinion.

Unless you have had a fully tailored suit - not just made to measure, but completely bespoke, then you have no idea what difference it makes.

[Cointreau]

Unless you have had a fully tailored suit - not just made to measure, but completely bespoke, then you have no idea what difference it makes.

You're full of surprises Silversword.

[silversword]

I detect sarcasm...

[Cornishfarmer]

Unless you have had a fully tailored suit - not just made to measure, but completely bespoke, then you have no idea what difference it makes.

My mate had a suit made for him in Thailand and when he can back from traveling he had put in 2 stone and never could have got into it

[silversword]

How the hell do you put on 2 stone without realising?

Edited November 10, 2014 by silversword

[stefffana]

oBump for this topic!

Even @crazy hippo is not here anymore, his question is still an interesting one.

Also, the answer offered by @HighlandTiger would generate good conversations on here.

Also, would be nice to see how much was to buy a one acre of land, a house /farm /cottage /mansion /castle, etc.

 

 

[Silverlocks]

On 07/11/2014 at 17:52, crazy hippo said:

Hi guys did the curiosity here.

What do you think you would’ve been able to buy with a gold sovereign in 1909?

 

 

Around the turn of the century, a revolver cost about £5.  That's my data point.  If you're interested in more, get hold of a reprint of the 1902 Sears Roebuck catalogue and bear in mind that £1 was equivalent to about $5 USD at the time.

[SidS]

On 07/11/2014 at 19:43, watchesandwhisky said:

I'm interested if you could have swapped 10 florins for a sovereign at the time, they do say a tenth of a pound.. that would have been just over three ounces silver for a sovereign.

Yes sovereigns were currency, they circulated.

A fair few have been recovered from the Titanic wreck. There were also a few hoards from the 1880s and 1890s that were found in the 1960s and they had mixtures of gold and silver - Aussie sovereigns (the local crowned AUSTRALIA design) also circulated widely in the UK.

Here's a list of four hoards found, some great info on what age and kinds of coins were circulating:

https://www.britnumsoc.org/publications/Digital BNJ/pdfs/1964_BNJ_33_23.pdf

Edited July 28, 2023 by SidS

[Olivard]

A pound in 1909 is worth £152.29 in 2023 if you take into account inflation.

Edited July 28, 2023 by Olivard