Lincoln's homeowner's insurance on the Springfield home

[Dan Pearson]

I know I'm really late in ready some of these posts, but being a newbie, I want to get caught up. Bill's question of the value of $24.00 in 1861 dollars in today's money is a good one. It's something that I teach my 7th graders in middle school economics. I have the students do a little project that uses the following website:

http://www.measuringworth.com/uscompare/

Using this calculator, it shows that $24 in 1862 has the historic standard of living (purchasing power) value of $554 in 2011 dollars. The insured value of $3200 now equates to $73,800. This pretty much stacks up well to current rates in my area of the country.