To have a 100 bucks in 1870

if you had a 100 bucks in 1870 look at what you could have bought.

 

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Tell you what, you probably would have best off buying BU rolls of cents from the bank. Even the 1856 FE cent would have cost 600 BU IHC's.

 

I will post a different pic of them wanting 5 for a 1856 flying eagle

 

I read in a book a while back that average pay for a soldier in the Civil war was $5 a month. This was considered low pay at the time, but they lived on it.
Not sure what average pay was for other people but if it was $20 a month, it wouldn't be too easy to drop $8 on a coin at that time. No different than spending a full 2 week's pay check on a coin today.

 

I have heard that a US Marshal in the 1870s would get $30 a month.

 

If you had $100 back in 1870 to drop on coins, you were definitely in the top 1%. Most people could make ends meet with $100 in a whole year back then.