ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area The Color of Money

Interesting trivia regarding the origin of ‘two bits’ from Spanish pieces-of-eight can be read at http://www.nctimes.net/news/2001/20010318/aaaa.html . For a concise history of currencies used in the US from its earliest days try this: http://www.ex.ac.uk/~RDavies/arian/northamerica.html .

Just an aside,
Is it just me or is money the world over becoming more and more valueless?.
The reason I ask this, is because, when I was growing up in the 70's, you very seldom ever heard the figure "$million", used very often, but these days, it seems everything is counted in millions (or Billions, for that matter), or has the price of everything sky-rocketed that much, over this time!(take the price of houses, for example).
What are your thoughts on this?.

Trumpy,
normally the inflation and economic growth will mean that people will have more money each year. The only exception I know of is Japan, where prices and wages go down.

By the way, few million liras don't make you a rich man. Italians have had a hard time getting used to money being worth something since they changed from the Lira to the Euro. The exchange rate is 1940:1, if my memory serves me. The Turkish lira is worth even less.

Some countries have chosen to delete a few zeros from the bills and coins, just to make the currency look like it is worth something.

[This message has been edited by C-H (edited 07-01-2003).]

Trumpy, the answer is inflation. On average prices in the US rose just over 4% per year from 1950 to today. This means that $799 dollars today is worth what $100 was in 1950. $125,000 in 1950 would buy what $1,000,000 will buy today. If you want to be as rich as a 1950's millionaire, you now need 8 million, so keep working.

Inflation really took its toll here in Britain in the 1970s when prices just went crazy. These days though, its probably house prices which are the biggest problem. In many areas, young people just setting out in work and trying to get a "starter" home just have no chance whatsoever.

To add to the images, here are the current English bank note designs introduced fairly recently, images from the Bank of England website. Our notes seem to change with alarming regularity these days:






[This message has been edited by pauluk (edited 07-02-2003).]

There are different designs of Scottish bank notes .

And here are the designs of all the old Irish bank notes: http://www.centralbank.ie/notesandcoins.asp

Their "A" series design seems to have lasted a very long time -- From 1928 (a few years after independence from the UK) right up until the 1970s!

As an aside (and perhaps getting back on topic a little ), for any of you who do small jobs and accept payment in cash, will you accept foreign currency?