This page is a rough prototype of my ongoing digital humanities project, Visible Prices. Please do not share or distribute this link without my permission.

Currently, you can interact with the data in timeline, table, or list format below. Clicking on the categories in the first row (date, currency, keywords, location, genre), or in the tag cloud, allows you to limit what price entries are being shown in the main area. In the timeline view, you can click on any point to retrieve a more complete listing of its data. In the table and list views, you can customize the view by clicking on the categories to change how the entries are sorted.

Soon it will be possible to order the objects shown from least to most expensive, but at the moment, you can isolate them by clicking to isolate particular types of coins -- farthings have the least value, while guineas have the most value. You can also use the search box on the left to search for specific items or amounts.

British Currency Values (pre-1971)
1 guinea = 21 shillings
1 pound = 20 shillings
1 shilling = 12 pennies
1 penny = 2 halfpennies
1 halfpenny = 2 farthings

This interface was built using MIT's Simile Exhibit and Timeline widgets. The next planned update will adapt the Timeline interface to show pre-1971 British currency (pennies, shillings, pounds, guineas, etc.), rather than dates -- allowing users to scroll from larger to smaller amounts after filtering by date, location, object type, or genre.

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