Money in the time of the 1897 Sears Catalogue

American money in 1897 was counted in dollars and cents:

1 dollar = 100 cents

Ordinary people started to write bank cheques in the 1890s, but for the most part money still took the form of gold and silver coins. There was paper money, but it did not become widely used till a generation later.

The following were the coins in common use (along with their rough value in metric pennies, which have 0.5 grams of silver):

• 

  a $10 eagle gold coin

  $20.00 double eagle (2110) – gold

• $10.00 eagle (1054) – gold
• $5.00 half eagle (527) – gold
• $2.50 quarter eagle (264) – gold
• $1.00 dollar (105) – silver
• $0.50 half dollar (53) – silver
• $0.25 quarter (26) – silver
• $0.10 dime (11) – silver
• $0.05 nickel (5) – nickel
• $0.01 penny (1) – copper

So the American penny in 1897 had about the same value as Shakespeare’s penny! Or Leonardo’s soldo. About $0.20 in current money.

Most coins had a woman’s head on one side (Liberty) and an eagle on the other. Most day-to-day money was silver, not gold.

Even though the dollar had 48 metric pennies of silver (24 grams), by this time its value had more than doubled to 105. There was not enough silver and gold to keep up with the growth of industry. Money became more valuable and prices went down, not up. This hurt debtors, like farmers in the west, but made creditors rich, like the bankers in the east.

But 1897 brought some good news for the farmers: wheat sold at 40 pennies a ton, high for those days, and gold was discovered in the Klondike. It was the beginning of good times for everyone.

What people made (in pennies a day):

   133 a day's work for most men, give or take

Most men made a bit more than a dollar a day, working more than nine hours a day and part of the day Saturday. Sundays off. Making more than two dollars a day was rare. Most had never finished high school.

Prices, many from the Sears catalogue itself (given in pennies):

  8000 surrey (horse-drawn carriage)
  2500 graphophone (yes, an early sort of phonograph)
  1995 Encyclopaedia Britannica
  1530 camera
  1150 telephone
  1050 bed for two (iron frame)
   950 overcoat
   800 man's suit
   295 boots
   240 gold ring (14k)
   195 Complete plays of Shakespeare
   195 Bible
   175 eyeglasses
   165 shoes
   168 Webster's Unabridged dictionary
   135 vest
   125 trousers
    75 a metre of velvet
    60 book
    55 tea, kg
    53 butter, kg
    50 dress shirt
    50 record (1 song)
    47 belt
    40 denim overalls
    40 a ton of wheat (high for those days)
    39 underwear
    35 scissors
    31 flour, kg
    31 potatoes, kg
    25 a metre of cloth (to make a dress)
    24 cheese, kg
    22 pepper, kg
    21 cap
    19 eggs, dozen
    12 beef, kg
    12 lock
    12 sugar, kg
    10 strawberries, kg
    10 dozen buttons
    10 magazine (Harper's Bazaar)
     8 pair of socks
     8 knife
     7 milk, L
     5 subway fare
     3 newspaper (New York Times)
     2 send a letter
     1 candle
     1 8 cups of tea

– Abagond, 2007.

See also:

• American dollar
• Money in Leonardo’s time
• Money in Shakespeare’s time
• Money in New York in 2007
• PPP