we knew what we know now ? I was looking through some of my reference material trying to find some details for a mate, when I came across an old Coins of Australia from 1966. I thought I would see what the cheapest Sovereigns were selling for and well it was $14 ! I also reckon you could find them cheaper maybe ? Not sure what wages were and the % to today but if anyone wants to do the maths it would be interesting. BTW a 1930 Penny was $800
I was still in High school in 1966 however my first part time job paid me the grand total of $2 a week. Involves walking a pair of greyhounds an hour a day, 5 days a week. Would have taken me 7 weeks to buy a Sovereign. My father did much better; he was paid around $50 for a 5 1/2 day week.
Hey aurora, Don't know what your father did, but that works out to be around 3.57 sovs. Also don't know the price of sovs. Just wondering what it would be wage wise compared to today. 1 sov ($400 - $500???) say $450, so his wage today would be $1600 a week. Wonder if the same job now, would he be paid the same, lower or more.
So roughly 28% his wage would have purchased a Sovereign. How does that compare today ? If we take the average Australian wage now by some sites is showing as high as $73,000 if we look at that - $1403 a week, Sovereign at PM $433 = 30.86% So give or take the price of a Sovereign has kept up with inflation and the Countries wages. Thanks AEL for the insight. BTW I was still just a wee tinkle in me fathers eye at this time
He was the manager of a travel agency. Salary was for a 44 hours week since the travel agency was opened a half day on Saturday but he put in a lot more unpaid hours than that.
I was wondering to about the affordability of gold back in the day and came across some figures. Thought i'd share as it's in the spirit of this thread. This was either late 50s or early/mid 60s. Average yearly salary (i assume before tax) for a mid-level white collar worker was 300 australian pounds a year. Higher level managers made almost double if i recall correctly. Gold was fixed at US$35 per oz. Exhange rate was 1 australian pound = USD$2.2 So the average yearly salary would buy you almost 19 ounces of gold. 19 ounces of gold today @ AUD 1540 would cost $29,260 Average salary today is higher than $29,260 but stacking 19 ounces of gold today for median salary earners would still be a tough task. Feel free to correct me on any of the figures above, it was difficult finding stats/references to average salaries and historical exchange rates.
That booklet is great find. Any more gold coins in there? Earlier sovs perhaps Queen Victoria and pre Victoria? Also i can just make out the prices on your scan. Is there any way i can increase the size of the scan to make the figures larger?
Yes it is complete for the era. The reason I liked this one was that it was the first Decimal issue, as such I could then get a fair comparison using the same $ rather than conversion currency etc... Is anyone else having an issue reading it as I thought it came out pretty clear. Drop me what you are after (within reason) Byron and I can email you a scan if you like Edit - It goes back to the 1855 Sydney Sovereign which was $80 the dearest Sov was $120 but this was only for 3 of them
