The Blackpool Tower in silver

[Foster88]

Whilst recently visiting Blackpool Tower I saw this ‘work of art’ of a model of Blackpool Tower made of silver.

I took some photos to share with you all, imagine, £120 for 700oz of silver.

But then again, it was made in 1898. Just four years after the tower was built in 1894.

Imagine polishing that tower. No pun intended accidentally on purpose.

Aside from it being made of silver, it truly is a work of art.

Edited April 8 by Foster88

[paulmerton]

£120 back then would be worth about £19,500 today.

Modern equivalent of nearly £28/oz.

[monkey]

So silvers still got a little way to catch up with it value just over 100 years ago. Spot has popped up to £22/oz this morning though

 

Amazing piece of workmanship. Any of the silver makers in the community fancy having ago?

Edited April 8 by monkey

[SidS]

Silver's actually cheap.

[GoodAsGold]

Great to see, but that’s an eBay replica. @GoldDiggerDave has the original sat on his mantelpiece.

[Spark268]

On 08/04/2024 at 09:02, paulmerton said:

£120 back then would be worth about £19,500 today.

Modern equivalent of nearly £28/oz.

by my calculations £120 back then would be 120 sovereigns which would be worth £51,600 now, giving the silver price of £73 per ounce. I dont know if its £120 worth of silver, or that for the silver, and the cost to build the model aswell. A conservative assumption that half was labour, would give an estimate of £36.50 per ounce.

[paulmerton]

2 minutes ago, Spark268 said:

£120 back then would be 120 sovereigns which would be worth £51,600 now, giving the silver price of £73 per ounce.

I don't think it works like that!

[Spark268]

why not? I thought sovereigns amounted to £1 back then?

[paulmerton]

8 minutes ago, Spark268 said:

why not? I thought sovereigns amounted to £1 back then?

They still have a face value of £1 today.

Comparing that against the value of the metal they're made of is nonsensical.

[Spark268]

7 hours ago, paulmerton said:

They still have a face value of £1 today.

Comparing that against the value of the metal they're made of is nonsensical.

i am open to being corrected on my calculation, but you've not shown why, and have not shown your calculation. Britain was under a gold standard back then, where 1 pound equalled 20 schillings which equalled 1 gold sovereign. 120 sovereigns would be worth 52.8K today.

[paulmerton]

Suggesting that something bought back then has a modern cost equivalent based on how much gold it would have cost at the time only works if that something is actually gold. In terms of actual money...

[Spark268]

My calculation assumes a constant gold to silver ratio which we know now is at historical lows, but both are monetary metals which aim to hold value. You can deflate with the inflation rate, but thats known to be flawed in itself, and perhaps more so !