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Date: Tue, 04 Nov 2003 18:50:56 -0000
To: colonial-coins@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: the cost of beer - in colonial times - help
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>
> I wrote to you a while ago about groats. I managed to get a
couple of nice ones--Anne 1713 and William III 1836. I wonder if
you can advise me where to look for the cost of common items in
colonial America around the 1730s. Since Franklin is talking about
spending a groat a day at the tavern, (snip)
I was puzzling over what coin Franklin could possibly be referring
to as a "groat." I doubt it would be English groats - very little
English silver circulated in the American colonies. Then I looked
at Phil Mossman's book, page 75, and he says that a pistareen in
Pennsylvania is worth one shilling four pence in Pennsylvania
currency. Mossman refers to two tables, one from 1759 and another,
printed by Franklin, in 1751. In other words, sixteen pence. A
quarter of that is fourpence, i.e. one groat. Franklin's groat, I'm
willing to bet, is our old friend the quarter pistareen (also known
as a medio, a Spanish provincial silver half real), expressed in
Pennsylvania money of account. This is the smallest silver coin
that would be circulating in the American colonies at that time, and
in its later Federal guise (because a quarter pistareen is worth
five cents), as the half dime, it remained the smallest silver coin
until 1873. In fact, it still is true today in a sense - if you ask
a person on the street, "What is the smallest denomination silver
coin?" they might well reply, "A nickel," given the common misuse of
the term "silver" to refer to copper-nickel coins. An interesting
example of conservatism in coinage.
Note that this only works in these specific tables in Pennsylvania
in the 1750s because those tables undervalue the pistareen - they
figure it as worth less than five to the dollar, while using the 90
pence to the dollar standard that became the common Pennsylvania
currency standard in the nineteenth century. I guess Pennsylvania
really loved the new pillar dollars, compared to the grotty old
cross pistareens! Well, that's understandable.
Remember when comparing prices that moneys of account varied from
colony to colony and from time to time, and as we can see from the
pistareen, it even varied among denominations. In Pennsylvania in
the nineteenth century the Spanish dollar was worth 90 pence; in New
York, 96 pence; in Massachusetts and Virginia, 72 pence. Since the
value of the moneys of account had been "cryed up," the prices are
not as high as one might think if one were led astray into believing
that a reference to "a shilling" refers to British regal shilling.
So what Franklin is saying is, even the smallest things could add
up. If you were to spend only the smallest silver coin in
circulation (viz., a quarter pistareen) in a tavern every day, it
would mount up to a large amount over a year.
It is interesting that he didn't refer to a copper coin. Perhaps it
was because copper coins were not readily exchangeable into silver
ones. (Just like today! Try getting rid of ten thousand cents!)
John M. Kleeberg
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