Quote:
Originally Posted by The Philpott
..Why did we complicate things by quoting 55'- or 95'- rather than £2.15.0 or £4.15.0 in those days? Was this intended as a mind trick similar to today's tactics such as £39.99 for a kettle and £8,995 for a car...? Guineas i can cope with, but huge amounts of shillings just seems odd and out of place.
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It was standard practice to price items in the £1-£5 price range like that. It's sales psychology - a pound was a significant psychological barrier at that time, indicating that something was expensive, so people were more willing to buy if the price was in shillings, even a ridiculous quantity like 95/-.
Anything over £1 actually
was expensive. A pint of beer in a pub cost less than 2/- in the mid 60s.