Early Wheatley Book Pricing

ericmocata · Post by **ericmocata** » Tue 28 Aug, 2012 20:48:05

I have some fairly early editions of Wheatley's books and they usually have the prices on the dust jackets (except for the price-clipped copies I have), but I have no idea how to read the prices, for example on my copy of the Man Who Missed the War, it says 10'6. I suppose part of it is the fact that I am not English and part of it is also likely that the money system back then might have still been different than modern English currency. I'm not really sure when all of that changed. Were those still the days of shillings, crowns, farthings, etc. or was it already just the pound? So, if anybody can explain some of that stuff for me, I'd appreciate it.

I'd tell you English-folk to switch to dollars, but the pound is worth more.....

Charles · Post by **Charles** » Wed 29 Aug, 2012 08:05:15

Dear Eric,

Decimalisation came to England on February 15th, 1971.

Up until then a pound comprised 20 shillings, and a shilling comprised 12 pence.

10/6 was therefore 10 shillings and sixpence, or 52.5p in new money.

Shows the ravages of inflation over time - buying a sandwich near my office at lunchtime costs around Â£3 now !

You remind me of happy days - but at least we never got into the euro

Best as always !

Jim · Post by **Jim** » Wed 29 Aug, 2012 10:10:06

When I first visited London, in October 1982, you still occasionally saw some of the old coins, and the Pound was still a paper bill !

Cibator · Post by **Cibator** » Wed 29 Aug, 2012 11:49:57

According to an automatic calculating facility available at:

http://www.measuringworth.com/ukcompare ... evalue.php

- the equivalent cost of that book nowadays would be around Â£17.80.

Garry Holmes · Post by **Garry Holmes** » Wed 29 Aug, 2012 18:58:14

A few days ago I took my niece to the travelling fair. It was a bit of a shock, as I last went to one of these things as a teenager, and didn't think that the prices would have changed THAT much. Â£3 for a ride on the Dodgem cars!!!! I told my niece that if she got a taste for the ride, it might be cheaper to simply hire a car and crash that....

ericmocata · Post by **ericmocata** » Wed 29 Aug, 2012 22:35:18

Thank you for the information about the pricing. Makes a bit more sense now.

It does seem inflation has made everything expensive these days. I remember paperback books being only a couple of dollars when I was young. Now, they cost around 10.

Here in the U.S. they keep trying to get the dollar coin thing to work, but it never seems to take. We had one several years back, but I think I only happened across two or so in that time. We have a new one now, but I have yet to seem them. If I did, it would be almost like talking about Nessie or Bigfoot. "No really, I saw it with my own eyes!" Maybe this time it'll stick around, but I highly doubt it. If they really exist, that is....

Jim · Post by **Jim** » Wed 5 Sep, 2012 23:26:12

Cibator wrote: According to an automatic calculating facility - the equivalent cost of that book nowadays would be around Â£17.80.

And that's not out of line with the book prices I see on some of the websites I shop.