When the eye projects an image on the retina, contrast degradation takes place because of stray light in the eye. This letter shows that for a 24 x 18 display, the maximum achievable retinal contrast for a 4 x 4 checkerboard image is approximately 80:1 for young persons, going down to approximately 37:1 for a 70-year-old person. This information is important for both display consumers and manufacturers because it puts the display contrast specification into perspective and may affect the contrast design target of a display system.