Adventures of the Wishing-Chair by Enid Blyton

What’s a Shilling? For those not familiar with old UK currency… Pre decimalization (1971) a pound consisted of twenty shillings, each of which in turn consisted of twelve pennies or pence. Post decimalization a pound consists of one hundred [new] pence. A straight conversion for the three shillings which Mollie and Peter have in their money-box is therefore (3/20) X 100 = 15 pence. Buying the vase for 2/6 [two shillings and sixpence or “two and six”] leaves them sixpence for the flowers. In current UK currency that’s 12½p and 2½p, although we’ve long since got rid of the ½p. More realistic conversion rates as at 2010 using Retail Price Index and Average Earnings are: 1950 (publication): £4.00/£11.50 1937 (first edition): £7.50/£22.00 Source: http://www.measuringworth.com/ukcompare/result.php If you need to relate the story in relative terms either five or ten pounds would be reasonable.