Someone earlier last week was asking what $100 would buy in the 1930's compared to today.... or what a $100 bet back then would be worth today. I asked a fellow coin collector who used to give talks on this very subject in the NJ, NY, PA area if he would send me some of his "talking points". Here is what Arno Safran sent to me. Hope some of you old-timers remember this stuff .... and for you youngsters; I know that you'll find much of it hard to believe.

WAGES:
Teachers averaged $1,300 a year; about the same as factory workers. Business operated on a six day week (8 hours daily), so teachers may have fared a little better working five day weeks with summers off. A wage earner was doing very well if he brought home $35.00 a week or around $1,750 a year.

PRICES:
Carfare for rapid transit was a nickel. A daily tabloid newspaper cost 2¢; the daily NY Times cost 5¢ back in the 1930's; a quarter for the Sunday Edition. .15¢ could get you into the movie theater if you were a child; .25¢ for an adult. An ice cream cone cost a nickel; a sundae or ice cream soda or malted milk at the soda fountain cost between .10¢ and .15¢. A loaf of bread was only a dime. A child's three-drawers tiered pencil box cost a quarter at the local Woolworth's or Kresge's Five & Dime store. The same coin could get him a haircut but his Dad would have to forgo a half-dollar if he wanted his "ears lowered" ... with possibly a shave thrown in. A lower-end brand new automobile (e.g. Ford, Plymouth or Chevy) sold for around $600. An newly built three bedroom home cost between $4,000 and $5,000.

Arno says, "I culled some of this information from articles of mine that were published in Numismatic News(11/19/83), "Remembering the 1930's" and in "Coin World" (1/1/86) Coinage: A Century Apart". Some of the other figures came from research for slide-talks before local clubs and from having a good memory of my early childhood."