Adventures of the Wishing-Chair (29 page)

For those not familiar with old UK currency…

Pre decimalization (1971) a pound consisted of twenty shillings, each of which in turn consisted of twelve pennies or pence.

Post decimalization a pound consists of one hundred [new] pence.

A straight conversion for the
three shillings
which Mollie and Peter have in their money-box is therefore (3/20) X 100 = 15 pence. Buying the vase for 2/6 [two shillings and sixpence or “two and six”] leaves them sixpence for the flowers. In current UK currency that’s 12½p and 2½p, although we’ve long since got rid of the ½p.

More realistic conversion rates as at 2010 using Retail Price Index and Average Earnings are:

1950 (publication):        £4.00/£11.50

1937 (first edition):       £7.50/£22.00

Source:
http://www.measuringworth.com/ukcompare/result.php

If you need to relate the story in relative terms either five or ten pounds would be reasonable.