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$48.00 USD.

A penny (a 12th of a silver shilling) would have been worth about ($48 / 12 = 4) $4.00 USD, which would also nicely emulate the farthing, making each farthing worth $1.00 USD.

Going up to the pound or crown, the 20 silver shillings that make up a pound would equate to (2048=960) $960.00 USD, which you could, without too much trouble, round down to $950 or up to an even $1,000.00 USD.

Obviously, farthings would be your dollar bill, and nearly everything of significance in any historical or roleplaying game economy, especially lesser items, costs at least that much, while pence are next up as more or less the $4.00/$5.00 bill, and are pretty common too.

Lastly, suppose in between these extremes is the person who made 3 pence per day? We would divide our initial figurings by 3 ($48/3=16) to get a modern-day equivalent worth of $16.00 per penny.

This would make Farthings worth ($16/4=4) $4.00 USD each, shillings worth ($16x20=320) $320.00, crowns worth $1,600 and one tower pound sterling $6,400 each.

So which is correct for your purposes? Really, it will depend on what you determine as the baseline for your own situation, whether you use a low, medium or high average wage and pay scale, and whether or not you figure in intangibles - as in most other things in life, essentially, your mileage may vary.

Learn more about this author, Jason Patterson.
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