The Value of Shakespeare's "crown"

[KaitCat]

Hi! i'm working on a production of Shakespeare's AS YOU LIKE IT and the question came up of how much (in American Dollars) was a "crown" worth back then (1598-1603), what would that equal now in 2008 and what the differences would be, if any, between a British Crown and a French Crown. Thank you!

[jno]

one site tells me about $70 today but this sort of thing is almost impossible to calculate. The prices of individual things you might want to buy with it don't all rise at the same rate, and a coin is only 'worth' what you can buy with it. I wouldn't be surprised if you could also arrive at a figure ten times as much. Sorry, not terribly helpful, I know.

[kempie]

Of course, American Dollars did not exist back at the turn of the 17th Century. British colonies tended to use the Pound Sterling along with Spanish and French denominations.

In 1645 the legislature of Virginia... established the Spanish Dollar, or "piece of eight," at six Shillings, as the standard of currency for that colony. In 1655 the "piece of eight" was changed from six Shillings to five Shillings Sterling as the standard of currency.

Other colonies/states had different rates for the Spanish Dollar to Shilling conversion.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continental_curre ncy

The Spanish Dollar later morphed into Continental Currency, which was itself replaced by the US Dollar at a rate of 1000 Continental Dollars = 1 US Dollar.

From 1526 the Crown was set at five Shillings. Thus, in the case of Virginia, 1 Dollar = 1 Crown.

[KaitCat]

Now i'm REALLY confused. i found some other info that said 1 Elizabethan Pound = 240 pence = 20 shillings = 12 pennies and 1 crown = 60 pennies (100 shillings), so and that would = 5 Elizabethan Pounds.

[kempie]

12 pennies (pence) = 1 shilling
60 pence = 5 shillings = 1 Crown
240 pence = 20 shillings = 4 Crowns = 1 Pound

[KaitCat]

Thanks! The site i was on was verry confusing -- it looked like pennies were NOT pence. Thanks!

[Lil O'lady]

Like Jno says, fluctuations in relative values and labour costs make this hard to equate in simple terms, but how about this:
In later years of Queen Elizabeth I, one shilling was a pretty severe fine - more than a week's wages if you take that apprentices really did earn 'a penny a day'.
If you take it that a crown is five shillings, you should call it roughly six weeks wages.
Plus, countries used each others currencies - so French and Spanish coinage ('pieces of eight', 'doubloons', and all that pirate stuff) were in circulation, and coinage was still largely evaluated by weight and quality rather than face value - the reason for biting a coin as seen in cowboy films was to see if it bent slightly as this was a guide to its gold content.

[sigma]

Using the retail price index, 5s in 1600 would be worth in todays terms be �35. approx $70

[Lil O'lady]

Sigma - the relative values of goods and services have altered so vastly that the retail price index is not helpful outside the modern industrial period.