Expert: Neil S Berman - 10/12/2004

Question
Greetings,
 I am writing a fictional novel and need to know the value of 200 pounds of pure gold in 1865 United States.
 Thanks,
 john Cary

Answer
Dear Dr. Cary. In 1865 gold was worth $34.00 an ounce, or $544.00 per pound. A working man might have earned $20.00 per month in the North and would have been paid in Greenbacks, federal paper money, and in the West, in silver dollars. For all practical purposes there was no money in the South, which is one of the reasons for the carpetbaggers and the wholesale looting of the South by the North after the murder of Lincoln and the occupation of the South from 1865 to 1888. 200 pounds of gold was 5500 years pay to an average man in 1865. Regards. N.