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How much did Davy spend on his rifle?

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I tried to figure out the modern value of 8 English pounds once, using one of the online calculators re chronologic inflation rates, etc., came to the conclusion the gun cost about $900, as I recall.

Spence

According to the research I did last year, ... You got very close.
My research turned up these little tidbits, ...


1775 money

In 1775 one shilling had the purchasing power of roughly five of today's dollars.

That meant that an English pound (£ ) had roughly the value of one hundred dollars in today's money.

£ = $100.00

s = $ 5.00

d = $ 0.42


In 1775, a Pound Sterling was equal to 20 Shillings, and a Shilling was equal to 12 pence.


A Farthing was a 1/4 penny, a Ha'penny was a 1/2 penny, and a Pence was obviously a Penny.


A Tuppence was not actually a coin, but “two pence” was pronounced “tuppence” and you may see it written that way.



A Bob was Slang for a Shilling, a Half-crown was 2 shillings and 6 pence, a Crown was Five shillings, a Half sovereign was a


gold coin worth 10 shillings, a Sovereign was a gold coin worth 1 pound, and a Quid was Slang for a pound sterling.


The value of each foreign silver coin was calculated based on the fineness of the silver and the weight of the coin in relation to "One troy ounce of sterling silver".


The Dutch 40 stuiver or "Lion dollar" was valued at 44 Pence.

And The Dutch 63 stuiver or "Silver rider" was valued at 64 Pence.

And a full weight Lion dollar of Holland was valued at 68 Pence.

An un-clipped Spanish dollar was valued at 90 Pence.
 
What would Davy or Daniel have paid for their rifles?

There are five M/L rifle attributed to Davy Crockett, 3 have provenance to prove the claim.

The Crockett/Swann was owned by him for 2 years, it was his first rifle. He traded it in 1806 for a horse and several months of bonded labor.
 
In 1846, an ox was traded for this rifle.
DSC06697.JPG
 
To keep things in perspective, you could buy a 40 acre farm for $7.00.
That’s one of the things that make it hard to compare money from the past. Brandon, on you tube,does some real good eighteenth century military vids. He talked about building a three deck Ship of the Line like Victory. The biggest of the eighteenth century war ships cost the equivalent of a gun boat today, but was close in terms of tax income and GDP as our best aircraft carriers today. When money was real, meaning each coin was worth that much in the cost of the metal of the coin, that altered the value of the money. Much of what was cheap was very expensive, somethings that were cheap then are very expensive today.
Reading the Doomsday book we learn that in 1080 all of England was worth about a hundred thousand pounds
 
What an interesting thread. I had no idea how English money was valued so thanks JS60 for that information. I need to study it more.

Rat we need more pictures of your gun. That plain, unadorned rifle looks like what most would have owned because it was more affordable.

I don't how often those folks way back then got as prety a rifle as that David Crockett rifle but I suspect most had rifles closer to the Poor Boy offered by TVM. I have been looking at there guns and if I ordered one thats the model I think I would get. I like the simpler more basic stuff when I can get it.
 

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