American Numismatic Association · America 250

What Could a Dollar Buy?

Drag through 250 years of American history and watch the dollar's purchasing power rise, fall, and rise again.

About these figures. Estimates are based on the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Price Index (1913 to present) and, for earlier years, on historical price reconstructions by scholars including Robert Sahr (Oregon State University) drawing on American Antiquarian Society data. Figures before 1913, and especially before 1800, are scholarly approximations; no official price index existed. Values shown are rounded and intended for education, not appraisal.

A real caveat worth keeping in mind: comparing money across centuries is more art than arithmetic. Any single “today’s dollars” figure hides enormous variation. Prices for specific goods differed sharply by region, and much of early American life ran on barter, credit, and book accounts rather than cash, especially in rural areas. Manufactured goods were also far more expensive, relative to everyday staples, than they are now. Treat these numbers as a feel for orders of magnitude, not precise equivalents, and as an invitation to ask the harder questions about how Americans actually lived, earned, and paid.