When researching your British forebears sometimes you come across records that mention a sum of money but have no idea what that sum was worth. For instance
Peter Worden (my maternal 11th great grandfather) was born in Lancashire around 1569; opened a hat shop in nearby Preston; became a member of the city government; and lent eight shillings to the Borough of Preston in 1629. Eight shillings? It doesn't sound like much, but the currency converter tells me that it was equivalent to five days labor for skilled tradesman.
Another example comes from the probate record for a friend's great grandfather:
When I plug in the value of his Effects, here's the result:
Of course all these calculations come with a disclaimer:
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