"Alex W." <ingilt@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
news:6d3rhmFnh33U1@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
> <UseNetOnly@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
> news:fttm64hi8dp60fbt9fp76g4vm1uakltp49@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
>
>> When I first visited England (in 1964) most people could
>> not imagine they would ever understand a decimal system,
>> now they hardly remember the imperial units :-)
>
> The youth of today, that they do not know Lsd (Libra-solidus-denarius
> to you) anymore....
>
> Now listen up, here is the short version:
>
> In Britain the pound Sterling is the central unit of money. Prior to
> decimalization the pound was divided into twenty ****llings and each
> ****lling was divided into twelve pennies or pence. Although this system
> seems odd, having a pound divided into 240 equal parts does mean that
the
> pound can be exactly divided into halves, thirds, quarters, fifths,
> sixths, eighths, tenths, twelfths, fifteenths,
> sixteenths, twentieths, twenty-fourths, thirtieths, fortieths,
> forty-eightieths, sixtieths, eightieths, and one-hundred-and-twentieths.
A
> decimal system allows only halves, quarters, fifths, tenths, twentieths,
> twenty-fifths, and fiftieths.
>
> Amounts of money are written in various ways. The pound is represented,
as
> it still is, by a £ sign, the ****lling by a 's' and the penny by a 'd'
> (for 'denarius', a Roman silver coin which was also used as the name for
> the English silver penny). So the meaning of £3-4s-6d is fairly obvious.
> But amounts below a pound are also written '12/6' meaning 12s-6d or
'10/='
> meaning ten ****llings. An amount such as 12/6 would be pronounced
'twelve
> and six' as a more casual form of 'twelve ****llings and sixpence'. From
> the late eighteenth century a
> ****lling was popularly called a 'bob' as in 'it cost three bob'. But you
> would only use that for whole ****llings so it would be 'three bob' or
> 'three and eight' but never 'three bob and six'.
>
> A guinea is £1-1s-0d (which is £1.05) and could be written as '1g' or
> '1gn' or, in the plural, '3gs' or '3gns'. It is considered a more
> gentlemanly amount than £1. You pay tradesmen, such as a carpenter, in
> pounds but gentlemen, such as an artist, in guineas. It is a tradition
in
> the legal profession that a barrister is paid in guineas but keeps only
> the pounds, giving his clerk the ****llings. The guinea can also be
> divided exactly into many different amounts - halves, thirds, quarters,
> sixths, sevenths, ninths, fourteenths, twenty-firsts, twenty-eighths,
> thirty-sixths, forty-seconds, sixty-thirds, eighty-fourths, and
> one-hundred-and-twenty-sixths. One useful factor is that a third of a
> guinea was exactly seven ****llings.
>
> The coinage reflects the principal divisions of the money and adds some
of
> its own. A gold coin worth £1 is called a sovereign and the half
> sovereign, also in gold, is worth ten ****llings. These coins were first
> minted in 1819 as a response to the rather uncertain value of earlier
gold
> coins. Both were current throughout Victoria's reign. A crown is a
silver
> coin worth 5/=- though much more common is the half-crown worth 2/6 or
> exactly one eighth of a pound. The ****lling is also a silver coin as are
> the sixpence and the threepence (usually pronounced and sometimes
spelled
> 'thruppence'). The coin is sometimes called a thrupp'ny bit. Silver
coins
> called groats worth four pence were also minted and are sometimes called
> Joeys (a term also used in the mid-twentieth century for threepenny bits
> when they were no longer made of silver).
>
> Half-groats and silver pennies are not in circulation but are still
minted
> for a tradition known as Maundy Money where the Monarch gives poor
people
> in a parish a groat, a threepence, a half groat and a penny. The number
of
> poor people favoured in this way is the same as the number of the
> monarch's years. The tradition still goes on, although now the number of
> people honoured is as many men and as many women as the monarch's years
> and they each get the same number of pence as the monarch's years. For
> example, in 1998 the 74-year-old Queen Elizabeth II gave out 74 pence
> (seven and a bit sets of a groat,
> a thruppence, a half-groat and a penny) of Maundy money to each of 74
men
> and 74 women in ****tsmouth. The sets come in an official little purse
and
> some recipients immediately sell the sets at considerable profit to
> waiting dealers.
>
> Lower value coins are made of copper (bronze from 1860). The penny is
> accompanied by the halfpenny (pronounced hape-nee and sometimes written
> ha'penny) and the farthing, worth a quarter of a penny. Half farthings
> were also minted for some of Victoria's reign but were unpopular because
> of their small size. Smaller coins - one third and one quarter farthings
-
> were minted mainly for use in some British colonies. For most people the
> penny is still the central coin of their currency and is used in words
> like 'penn'orth' meaning a penny-worth
> of something as in 'I'll take a penn'orth of tobacco' and also as in
'it's
> a good penn'orth, sir' meaning it is good value for your penny. These
> coins are referred to as 'coppers' as in 'It cost a few coppers'. Not to
> be confused with the slang meaning of 'a copper' from the early
Victorian
> period of 'a policeman'.
>
> The Victorians introduced one new coin intended as the first step
towards
> a decimal system of coinage. A two ****lling coin, exactly a tenth of a
> pound, was first minted in 1849. It was called a florin and it was
minted
> for nearly 120 years until 1968 when, in preparation for decimalisation,
a
> coin of the same size became the new ten pence piece. The florin is also
> called the two-****lling-piece or the two-bob-bit. It did not oust the
> popular half a crown, usually called a half-crown, worth 2s-6d, which
also
> remained until decimalisation. Even in the 1960s auctioneers at country
> sales would move the bidding on in half-crowns. The bid between five and
> ten ****llings was always 'three half-crowns'. A double florin was minted
> in 1887 but was not popular. Guineas were not minted after 1813. In the
> eighteenth century half, third, and quarter guineas were also minted.
Two
> and five guinea coins belong to an earlier age.
>
> Got that?
> Quite simple really....
>
> Now, can I tell you about cricket?
You forgot the tanner!
Smiler,
The godless one
a.a.# 2279
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