As one’s research approaches those ancestors living in the 17, 18 and 19th centuries, one faces monetary numbers no longer in use in the United States.
In order to create a reasonable description of the lives and times of those ancestors it is often useful to describe their wealth or lack thereof, to envisage what a particular cost in earlier times and to relate those dollars or coin to today’s coin. For the latter, a useful site is www.measuringworth.com.
What follows are the uses of coin and their worth in the English world of pounds sterling.
d is the abbreviation for a penny
s is the abbreviation for a shilling
Farthing = 1/4d (1/4 penny)
ha’penny = 1/2d
Penny = 1d
half-groat = 2d
thru’pence = 3d
groat = 4d
tanner = slang term for 6d
shilling = 12d
Florin = slang term for 2s (2 shillings)
Half a Crown = 2s 6d
Crown = 5s
Noble (1344-1464) = 80d (1/3 of a Pound)
Angel (1464-1645) = 80d (1/3 of a Pound)
Mark = 160d (2/3 of a Pound)
Pound = 20 shillings or 240d
Guinea = originally One Pound, in 1717 revalued at 21s
Sovereign = (1489-1605) worth 30 shillings; when reintroduced in 1817 it was worth 20 shillings