Please help solve a debate with a friend

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Please help solve a debate with a friend. During the war, was it 4 dollars to a British pound? Or maybe after the war?
Posters 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

Usenet · Accepted Answer

[nq: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?[/nq]
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

You'd be crazy to e-mail me with the crazy. But leave the div alone.

Usenet · Answer

[nq: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?[/nq]
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'.

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]Please help solve a debate with a friend. During the war, was it 4 dollars to a British pound? Or maybe after the war?[/nq]
[nq:1]Can't really answer your question. However, what I do know is that when I was growing up in England in ... as a 'dollar'. Half of that amount - two shillings and sixpence (known as 'half-a-crown') - often being called 'half-a-dollar'.[/nq]
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.
Ian

Usenet · Answer

[nq: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?[/nq]
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.

Usenet · Answer

(Email Removed) wrote Re Re: Please help solve a debate with a friend:
[nq:1]Exchange rates from 1940 - 2007 for ther US dollar to the British Pound: 1940 - 3.83[/nq]
1945 - 4.03 Is this just before the labor party?
[nq:1]1950 - 2.80 1960 - 2.80 1970 - 2.40 1980 - 2.33 1990 - 1.78 2000 - 1.52 2005 - 1.82 2010 - 1.55 [/nq]
Work is the curse of the drinking class.

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]Please help solve a debate with a friend. =A0During the war, was it 4 dollars to a British pound? =A0Or maybe after the war?[/nq]
Which war?
GFH

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]Exchange rates from 1940 - 2007 for ther US dollar to the British Pound: 1940 - 3.83[/nq]
[nq:1]1945 - 4.03 Is this just before the labor party?[/nq]
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 .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.
[nq:2]1950 - 2.80 1960 - 2.80 1970 - 2.40 1980 - 2.33 1990 - 1.78 2000 - 1.52 2005 - 1.82 2010 - 1.55[/nq]
Peter Duncanson, UK
(in alt.english.usage)

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]Please help solve a debate with a friend. During the war, was it 4 dollars to a British pound? Or maybe after the war?[/nq]
[nq:1]Which war? GFH[/nq]
The big one, w w 2.

Posters 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

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]Please help solve a debate with a friend. During the war, was it 4 dollars to a British pound? Or maybe after the war?[/nq]
[nq:1]Apparently, it was, $4.03. During, and a while after. Here's more history than you probably need:[/nq]
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.
[nq:1]http://www.miketodd.net/encyc/dollhist.htm[/nq]
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.

Posters 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

Usenet · Answer

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.

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