looking for pricing in 1820ish

by 0_Desdinova_0

hi im trying to write a "book" for the first time and an important part of it is how the main character get his starting money

the character originally lives in a fishing town (in New Hampshire) and my thought was that his mother (dead) would have found a pearl and put it in a cheap necklace I want him to get at least 100 dollars (yes I know that's a lot) but some less would be fine I've been searching for like 20 minutes and I can't find any pricing on pearls around that time can someone please help me find a reasonable size/price for the pearl or should I find some other way for him to get money at first

p.s. its a historical fiction about aliens causing world war 1 (yes it does sound dumb)

jschooltiger

Hi there - we're happy to approve your question related to your novel, and we are happy for people to answer. However, we should warn you that many flairs have become reluctant to answer questions for aspiring novelists, based on past experience: some aspiring novelists have a tendency to try to pump historians for trivia while ignoring the bigger points they were making, while others have a tendency to argue with historians when the historical reality does not line up with what's needed for a particular scene or characterization. Please respect the answers of people who have generously given you their time, even if it's not always what you want to hear.

Additionally, as amazing as our flair panel is, we should also point out that /r/AskHistorians is not a professional historical consultation service. If you're asking a question here because you need vital research for a future commercial product such as a historical novel, you may be better off engaging a historical consultant at a fair hourly rate to answer these questions for you. We don't know what the going rate for consultancy work would be in your locality, but it may be worth looking into that if you have in-depth or highly plot-reliant questions for this project. Some /r/AskHistorians flairs could be receptive to working as a consultant in this way. However, if you wish for a flair here to do this work for you, you will need to organize this with them yourselves.