I’ve never seen one in person but they look pretty cool so I’m wondering if anyone has some pics of one? I believe they’re almost 1.2 ounces of gold. Kinda crazy to think in 1887 a 1.2 ounce gold coin was only worth £5. Whereas today £5 is like a little kids weekly allowance.
Nope, can't help you, I only have a couple of the little ones. I think someone on this forum has one but I'm not for sure!
I just love the big fat gold coins like the £5 sovereign and gold 50 peso coins. They’re nice and hefty and feel like a lot of money in the hand. (Which it is).
5 pounds back in the days would be like the equivalent of 500 pound coin. https://www.measuringworth.com/calculators/ukcompare/relativevalue.php Imagine losing it somewhere. That would be awful.
I think it would be more than that. It’s over an ounce of pure gold (1.1775ozt to be exact) which today is worth ~$1850. Add on the extra amounts and it’s easily $2000 in gold. Today $2000 is about £1500 pounds. So I’d say £5 back in the 19th century was equivalent to about £1500 today.
I disagree. Gold in my opinion is over priced in today's world. If you look at the historical price of gold, it has only drastically increased in the last 20 years. Gold was not worth that amount of money back in 19th century.
That’s true now that I think about it. 20x Morgan Dollars would’ve had a face value of $20 but only been about 15 troy ounces of silver. Today about $450 in silver. At the same time period (1890s) a Double Eagle was also $20 face value but it was almost 1 full troy ounce of gold. Today about $1800. According to “Gresham’s Law” if the 20x $1 Morgan Dollars weren’t viewed by the people as having the same value as a $20 Double Eagle then eventually gold coins would’ve been driven out of circulation and people would’ve only used silver due to it being seen as worth less than the gold coins. Today the gold is worth much more, but back then they were both worth the same $20 face value.
That's certainly a valid way to look at buying power. Alternately, how much computing power, viagra, or steak could $20 have bought in 1921 (vs $450 today)?
Would have been difficult to purchase something like Viagratm that hadn't even been developed until a couple of decades ago. Not quite sure what they used instead. Maybe I don't want to know.
I mean, it was kind of my point that 2/3 of the examples I gave couldn't be purchased at any cost back then...
But an even more impressive piece of gold that was in general circulation was the 5 Guinea at almost 1.24 Oz. pure gold (125 shillings). Also the gold content was often higher than 22 ct. Several of my guineas tested at 23+ ct. purity. Getting a well preserved 5 guinea is not only a challenge but VERY expensive too.
Those are nice and pretty cool but I meant the older ones that were used in circulation. The pre-1900 £5 gold coins.
I like to compare things that were common today and back then. For example back in the 1890s a person could go to a restaurant and have a very good meal of a bowl of soup, roast turkey and a slice of pie and cup of coffee for under $1. Today that same meal would cost someone about $20-$30. So I think it’s safe to say $1 in the 1890s was worth about $25 or so today.
I know what you mean about being VERY expensive. I’m saving up for this one. Or the AU58 PL one since they’re both the same price and I can’t decide if PL or a slightly higher grade is better.
Comes down to which you like best. MS-60 seems to be a grade of UNC but issues whereas AU58 are generally really nice that plus PL may be the way but would have to see the look of the coins