On the BBC Facebook page the other day there was a story about a woman in New Zealand who took a book out of her local library and didn’t return it … well, she did, eventually. The book was due to be returned on 17th December 1948 and she returned it this year 2016!!
The fine for not returning a book was 3 pence for the first week and a penny a day after that. I felt the need to set up a spreadsheet You can download my file to see what I did but here is the summary:
| Summary | Fine | Present Value | ||
| Total pence | 17,552 | 146,418.45 | ||
| Total £ | £ | 73 | ||
| shillngs | 2 | |||
| pence | 8 | |||
| £ decimal | 73.13 | 610.08 |
We are dealing here with OLD pennies and pounds: 240 pennies to the Pound and so on. In my work I assumed there would be no fines for Saturday and Sunday … if there are my figures need to be updated for that!
I assumed 5% interest rates on average … and so on
Download the file here … library_fine
Duncan Williamson
Excel with Excel Master 