Was 3 cents ever a lot of money?

[Hayduke Lives!!]

Helping my grandpa move a bunch of junk out of his attic (and into his garage where it will probably spend another 20 years:rolleyes: ) he had a box with a bunch of old newspapers. They were mostly from the 60's. Looking through them I noticed grocery store ads with coupons..."Save 3 cents on frozen beans"...." etc. There was one coupon that saved you a whopping 7 cents on a jar of herring.

Hey, I know the economy is different but, hey? Was 3 cents ever really worth anything? My mom cuts coupons to save a buck. But 3 cents? I can't see wasting time to cut that out.

[reprise]

I was in Grade 6 in primary (elementary school) - a packet of chewing gum was worth 3 cents then. A packet of cigarettes was worth between 34 and 38 cents. This was in the days when our dolllar was worth more than the US$ (IIRC, about $1.15).

The year was 1971.

[Caldazar]

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (http://www.bls.gov/home.htm), in the United States, $0.03 in 1960 had the same buying power as $0.18 does today. Not really worth the effort to clip the coupon, IMO, but hey, a penny saved, and all that jazz.

As for whether $0.03 was ever worth anything, in 1913, $0.03 would have had the same buying power as $0.54 does today. So it was still basically pocket change, but decent pocket change all the same.

[DPWhite]

Back in the 30s (before television and video games) you could send your kid to the afternoon matinee for five cents (A NICKLE!). They got an A feature, a B feature (second tier stars and production), coming attractions (like trailers now), a newsreel, a cartoon (like Bugs Bunny), and a serial like Flash Gordon where they leaving you haning every week. Plus your folks got you out of their hair for a whole afternoon. Quite a deal. Even my excessively cheap grandfather paid a nickle to get my well behaved (if you believe her) mother out of the house.

I remember the 60s well (and spent the summer of love in San Francisco at the ripe age of 5), and candy bars were ten cents. I will still stoop down to pick up a penny, but it is really force of habit rather than intrinsic value. Oh, and gasoline was routinely less than 30 cents a gallon.