British money is a bit more complicated than
American. British coinage has a base of 12,
whereas American is based on 10. Plus, we
have not only the difference between American
and English coin values, but we also have to
consider the inflation over 200+ years.
When I read that a dowry is 10,000 pounds, I try to comprehend what that means compared to today’s money. Searching the internet, I discovered that in 2020 1 £ was equal to approximately $93, and accounting for inflation
since then, we should figure each Pound (1 £) had a buying power of a bit over
$114. That would make a £10,000 dowry around $ I.146 million in 2023 America. And
it means that each pence back then had the buying power of what we could
purchase for about 47½ ¢ today.
So Rob and Odell are gambling for farthings, ha’pennies, or
shillings. Compare that to things we can buy today. A candy bar usually costs between
$1.75 and $2.00 today; Rob or Odell would pay 3 or 4 pence. A banana is about
64¢ per pound. Rob and Odell would pay about 1.3 pence per 16 ounces.
Apples are $1.49 a pound (weight); Odell could buy a pound of apples for 3
pence. I hope this helps you get a deeper understanding of the Regency money and costs. The picture above is a Regency Era Shilling.
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