Expert: PAPAJACK - 2/4/2009

Question
I have a 1847 letter in which New York (British born) father writes his son about costs, such as "window trimming and rod 2s". Does the "s" mean shilling, and were shillings (also) used by Americans in first half of 19th C.? Was their value pegged to British shilling, or to US dollar?  Thank you.

Answer
Hello Charles,                    

Shillings, Pence and Pounds were much more common in the 1700’s as well as many other nationalities currency. But prior to 1776 these British denominations were the official unit for trade.

In the years before acceptance of the US Dollar as the standard for trade all other coins and currencies would have been converted to an equal amount at the store or bank. A merchant may well have accepted foreign coins for payment but the value in US Dollars would be different from bank to bank upon deposit.

The widest circulated I believe would have been the Spanish Milled Dollar. The 8 Real coins also called a PILLAR DOLLARS were historically used well into the early 1800’s. These coins were also called “Pieces of Eight” where one silver bit was equal to 12.5 cents.

All currency was converted to the going rate of the amount of silver or gold that the coin contained.

I am not sure how many Shillings were to a dollar at the time but a bank would always convert the coins and sent the silver off to the mint to be re-minted into US Coins.

This practice of storekeepers converting the coins phased itself out as banks became more popular for the common man to use. I believe this was prior to 1847, but the letter may have been written using the British standard for the ease of understanding the author. Or possibly the order you question was placed with a British Merchant.

So in the USA in 1847 it is the Dollar being worth .77344 ounce of pure silver was the standard. All other currency’s such as the “British shilling” would have been valued to this standard in the US marketplace.  

I hope this information Helps

Good Luck,
PapaJack

P.S.
In the 1840’s a dollars worth of gold was .04837 ounce.  This calculation could have been used for gold coins.

You can find the metal content of the British coins using “The Catalog of World Coins” your library has one for the years 1800 to 1900.