70 ounces of Chanel Perfume!

In 1961, a snippet was posted in the British magazine Country Life boasted  that "the largest single amount of scent put out for private consumption, I am told, is Mademoiselle Chanel's famous No. 5. This can be bought in a 70 oz. bottle that costs 200 guineas....Joy, by the house of Jean Patou, is said to be the most expensive scent in the world. A 1 oz bottle of Joy costs 13 guineas. A 1 oz. bottle of Joy costs 13 guineas, which seems to me to work out at 910 guineas for a 70 oz. bottle. Happily, perhaps, the house of Patou does not make one."

• 70 fl oz equals 2070.15 ml or 2 quarts and 6 fl oz. (1 qt is 32 fl oz), or just over two litres (one litre equals 33.81 fl oz).

A "guinea" is an old British term for one pound plus one shilling, pre Britain's change in 1971 to decimal currency. Pre 1971 pounds were split into shillings and pence. There were 20 shillings in a pound and 12 pence in each shilling. There were therefore 240 pence in a pre-decimal pound.

A shilling is 1/20 of a pound. Therefore 100 guineas = 100 pounds +5 pounds.= 105 pounds.

The Chanel No. 5 cost 200 guineas or $322.43 US dollars in 1961. Using an inflation calculator, what cost $322.43 in 1961 would cost $2794.53 in 2019. That is a lot of money for perfume!

The Joy cost 13 guineas or $13.65 US dollars in 1961. Using an inflation calculator, what cost $20.96 in 1961 would cost $181.66 in 2019.

But if we did the math and compared it to the 70 oz of Joy that the author was contemplating the price of, then it would have cost $955.50 in 1961.

What cost $955.50 in 1961 would cost $8281.41 in 2019. Now THAT would be a princely sum for perfume if that size actually existed for Joy.