[meteorite-list] Emil Cohen's Market Trends of 1899 -Cohen'sremarks & plausibility of conversion

From: Martin Altmann <Altmann_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed Apr 13 19:20:02 2005
Message-ID: <005c01c54080$1c6b1ae0$0d689a54_at_9y6y40j>

Wow, that's very helpful!

So the next price list, I can make more accurate,
J?rn sent me the price collation from Henry Ward from 1904.
Ward listed Cohen's prices too, but in US-dollars, so that next time (gosh,
I did the conversion by hand, as I have no computer in Romania), I'll be
able to deliver more accurate figures.

Just a short check....
Siena costed with my gold-conversion: 42.62$ Dollars of 2004,
Ward has Cohen's price listed as 2.31$:
Cohen collected the prices the years before 1899, thus I'll take the 14.85$
factor..... 34.30 Dollars of 1991,
some inflation from 1991 to 2004.....hum, so bad wasn't the gold-conversion
not, or?

Cheerio!
Martin



----- Original Message -----
From: "Sterling K. Webb" <kelly_at_bhil.com>
To: <meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Cc: "Martin Altmann" <Altmann_at_Meteorite-Martin.de>
Sent: Thursday, April 14, 2005 12:18 AM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Emil Cohen's Market Trends of
1899 -Cohen'sremarks & plausibility of conversion


Hi,

    OK, it's Off Topic...
    Historically, the use of gold by many nations to back their currency
results
in a flat value for currencies through long periods of time, since it is in
the
interests of governments to maintain a stable value for gold. The original
and
XIXth century U. S. dollar was backed by the Spanish dollar. (Yes, the
Spanish
dollar, which was gold backed.)
    The U. S. used the gold standard for its currency beginning in 1900, at
a
value of $20 per ounce. In 1935, in the Depression, the dollar was devalued
by
41%, by resetting legal price of gold to $35 per ounce. After World War II,
the
Bretton Woods Agreement essentially tied all the world's currencies to the
U. S.
dollar and its fixed gold price.
    In the U. S., the value of gold was set by law until 1968, so there were
no
"market" fluctuations until the 1970's. By 1980, the "price" of gold was
$900
per ounce! After that wild ride, the price of gold declined to less than
half
its peak value and the fluctuations have been mild ever since.
    These changes make a comparison by gold values complicated. Here's a
table
of the value of the U. S. dollar:

Historical Value of the U.S. Dollar
-----------------------------------
What one dollar was worth
in constant 1991 dollars:

1820-1850 $13.28
1850-1875 $13.14
1875-1900 $14.85
1900-1925 $11.38
1935 $9.91
1945 $7.56
1965 $4.31
1975 $2.35
1985 $1.26
1991 $1.00
(compiled by the U. S. Department of Labor Statistics
and the Bureau of Living Conditions Statistics)

    What's interesting is that the purchasing power of the dollar is
essentially
flat throughout the period 1800 to 1900. We accept inflation today as a
natural
and inevitable minor evil, but for 72 years of the XIXth century (excepting
only
the U.S. Civil War and the Crisis of 1896-98), there was no inflation!
    In effect, inflation has become the mechanism by which price values
change
and adjust.

    An excellent article on the complications of calculating the historical
value of money can be found here:
<http://www.sls.lib.il.us/reference/por/features/98/money.html>

    A full table of annual dollar values from 1970 can be found here:
<http://www.allmeasures.com/table.asp?money=on&Submit=Conversion+Table>
Received on Wed 13 Apr 2005 07:25:41 PM PDT