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From: "Percival P. Cassidy" <>
Subject: Re: Then and Now: Value of British Pound Stirling in 1950
Date: Sun, 23 Aug 2009 13:41:54 -0400
References: <6b447a84-d474-4f07-b918-099cedb365da@w41g2000yqb.googlegroups.com>
In-Reply-To: <6b447a84-d474-4f07-b918-099cedb365da@w41g2000yqb.googlegroups.com>


fjs1net wrote:

> I have just found my mother's first British passport; this was issued
> in 1950.
>
> That same year, she left England, and traveled by ship to New York, to
> marry my dad, who had been living there for a couple of years already.
>
> In the back of her passport, there is a statement of GBP 4.00 value
> for "Foreign Exchange for Traveling Purposes".
>
> Presume that this amount was just to cover her trip.
>
> But the question is . . .
>
> What would that GBP 4.00 (4 pounds) be able to buy in 1950, and what
> would it be it's equivalent value today?
>
> Any one know?


I no longer recall what anything cost in 1950. What I do remember is
that for much of my childhood Brits would call 5 shillings "a dollar"
because at some point that had been the exchange rate, but for much of
the time the official fixed exchange rate was "seven and tuppence" to
the US dollar, i.e., "7 shillings and two pence."

Perce

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