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Discussion Groups / English Usage / February 2010Please help solve a debate with a friend
Please help solve a debate with a friend. During the war, was it 4 dollars to a British pound? Or maybe after the war?  SignaturePosters should say where they live, and for which area they are asking questions. I was born and then lived in Western Pa. 10 years Indianapolis 7 years Chicago 6 years Brooklyn, NY 12 years Baltimore 26 years > Please help solve a debate with a friend. During the war, was it 4 > dollars to a British pound? Or maybe after the war? Apparently, it was, $4.03. During, and a while after. Here's more history than you probably need: http://www.miketodd.net/encyc/dollhist.htm SignatureYou'd be crazy to e-mail me with the crazy. But leave the div alone. >> Please help solve a debate with a friend. During the war, was it 4 >> dollars to a British pound? Or maybe after the war? > >Apparently, it was, $4.03. During, and a while after. Here's more >history than you probably need: No, it's good. I couldn't figure out how to find it on the web so was willing to settle for anyone's memory, but this also shows when it changed. >http://www.miketodd.net/encyc/dollhist.htm What I find interesting is that it changed *from* $4.03 when I was 2 and a half years old, and still I've always known about 4 dollars, which it was only from 1940 to mid '49. So how did I know about it? There was no tv. The newspaper first section was I think 12 pages or fewer, but it still might have had it. But I didn't know how to read. I don't remember this sort of thing on the radio, Maybe I learned later. The rate was 2.80 until 1968. I vaguely recall early on during that period, maybe when I was 10, hearing that it had been 4 dollars, but I thought I already knew that then. Maybe I saw it in a movie on tv. And my friend is 10 years older than I am and didn't remember. I guess I was more interested in British money than he was. Thank you, and thank you all. SignaturePosters should say where they live, and for which area they are asking questions. I was born and then lived in Western Pa. 10 years Indianapolis 7 years Chicago 6 years Brooklyn, NY 12 years Baltimore 26 years >>> Please help solve a debate with a friend. During the war, was it 4 >>> dollars to a British pound? Or maybe after the war? [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] >and a half years old, and still I've always known about 4 dollars, >which it was only from 1940 to mid '49. What I find interesting about that time period (if I remember correctly) was that 4 gallons of petrol cost £1 : ie a gallon of petrol cost $1. Signature(¯`·. ®óñ© © ²°¹° .·´¯) >>>> Please help solve a debate with a friend. During the war, was it 4 >>>> dollars to a British pound? Or maybe after the war? [quoted text clipped - 15 lines] >correctly) was that 4 gallons of petrol cost £1 : ie a gallon of >petrol cost $1. Basd on your name, I guess you're from Northumbershire. I think there was a gas shortage there, especially during and right after the war. SignaturePosters should say where they live, and for which area they are asking questions. I was born and then lived in Western Pa. 10 years Indianapolis 7 years Chicago 6 years Brooklyn, NY 12 years Baltimore 26 years >>(¯`·. ®óñ© © ²°¹° .·´¯) > >Basd on your name, I guess you're from Northumbershire Wrong assumption. bad guess. Signature(¯`·.¸®óñ© © ²°¹°¸.·´¯) ®óñ© © ²°¹° wrote: >>> (¯`·. ®óñ© © ²°¹° .·´¯) >> Basd on your name, I guess you're from Northumbershire > > Wrong assumption. bad guess. What is your name, by the way? I read it as "reserved óñ copyright copyright two degrees one degree". SignatureYou'd be crazy to e-mail me with the crazy. But leave the div alone. >>>(¯`·. ®óñ© © ²°¹° .·´¯) >> >>Basd on your name, I guess you're from Northumbershire > >Wrong assumption. bad guess. No sense of humor. SignaturePosters should say where they live, and for which area they are asking questions. I was born and then lived in Western Pa. 10 years Indianapolis 7 years Chicago 6 years Brooklyn, NY 12 years Baltimore 26 years > Please help solve a debate with a friend. During the war, was it 4 > dollars to a British pound? Or maybe after the war? Can't really answer your question. However, what I do know is that when I was growing up in England in the 1950s, five shillings (there were twenty shillings to the British pound) was commonly referred to as a 'dollar'. Half of that amount - two shillings and sixpence (known as 'half-a-crown') - often being called 'half-a-dollar'. >> Please help solve a debate with a friend. During the war, was it 4 >> dollars to a British pound? Or maybe after the war? [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] >of that amount - two shillings and sixpence (known as 'half-a-crown') - >often being called 'half-a-dollar'. I too remember those days. This site may be of interest: http://www.hemyockcastle.co.uk/money.htm In the 1930s, my mother's uncle and aunt emigrated to the USA and, until the early 1950s, they annually sent me three crisp, new $1 bills for Christmas. I remember going to Thomas Cook's to get them changed into 'real' money. I recall that, by then, each one was worth around 7s/6d, so the exchange rate must have fallen to around £3 to the pound. SignatureIan > Please help solve a debate with a friend. During the war, was it 4 > dollars to a British pound? Or maybe after the war? I was born in 1939, and throughout my childhood into adulthood we informally referred to five shillings as a "dollar" (20 shillings to the pound). Back in those pre-decimal days, we had a coin called half a crown - 2.5 shillings. Right up until decimalisation of the currency(1971?) we still colloquially referred to half a crown as "half a dollar", even though by then, the pound had greatly fallen in value. Exchange rates from 1940 - 2007 for ther US dollar to the British Pound: 1940 - 3.83 1945 - 4.03 1950 - 2.80 1960 - 2.80 1970 - 2.40 1980 - 2.33 1990 - 1.78 2000 - 1.52 2005 - 1.82 2010 - 1.55 Source: Dollar-Pound Exchange Rate From 1791 at this link: http://www.measuringworth.org/datasets/exchangepound/result.php Hope that helps. David, East Yorks, N.E. Coast of England. On Tue, 23 Feb 2010 12:01:32 +0000, David Taylor <cotters@cotters.karoo.co.uk> wrote Re Re: Please help solve a debate with a friend: >Exchange rates from 1940 - 2007 for ther US dollar to the British Pound: > >1940 - 3.83 1945 - 4.03 Is this just before the labor party? >1950 - 2.80 >1960 - 2.80 [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] >2005 - 1.82 >2010 - 1.55 SignatureWork is the curse of the drinking class. >On Tue, 23 Feb 2010 12:01:32 +0000, David Taylor ><cotters@cotters.karoo.co.uk> wrote Re Re: Please help solve a debate [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] >>1940 - 3.83 > 1945 - 4.03 Is this just before the labor party? That was just before the end of World War Two. The UK was beggared by paying for WWII and then "The pound was made fully convertible in 1946 as a condition for receiving a U.S. loan of US$3.75 billion in the aftermath of World War II." http://www.spiritus-temporis.com/pound-sterling/history.html The pound was no longer attached to the value of gold. >>1950 - 2.80 >>1960 - 2.80 [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] >>2005 - 1.82 >>2010 - 1.55 SignaturePeter Duncanson, UK (in alt.english.usage) >> Please help solve a debate with a friend. During the war, was it 4 >> dollars to a British pound? Or maybe after the war? [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > we still colloquially referred to half a crown as "half a dollar", > even though by then, the pound had greatly fallen in value. I'm not sure the slang was linked to the exchange rate in the first place. The BrE usage of "dollar" for foreign currency predates the USA by several hundred years. It was how we referred to the thaler, obviously, but also to the peso (piece of eight) and others. The usage of "half a dollar" seems to date from the mid to late 19th century, at a time when the US dollar was trading at 5 to the pound so was nearer the two-shilling piece (tosheroon) in value. SignatureJohn Dean Oxford > Please help solve a debate with a friend. During the war, was it 4 > dollars to a British pound? Or maybe after the war? Which war? GFH >> Please help solve a debate with a friend. During the war, was it 4 >> dollars to a British pound? Or maybe after the war? > >Which war? > >GFH The big one, w w 2. :) SignaturePosters should say where they live, and for which area they are asking questions. I was born and then lived in Western Pa. 10 years Indianapolis 7 years Chicago 6 years Brooklyn, NY 12 years Baltimore 26 years |
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