British Currency Explained

[Muteswan1]

I still have my 1953 Coronation Crown. A lovely, chunky coin. When I was a boy, a Matchbox toy cost 10d - ten old pennies, and you could get four Black-boy chewy sweets for a penny. School dinners were 5 bob a week, and your weekly Savings Stamp with a picture of Princess Anne on each one was 6d - a tanner. The richer kids had the Prince Charles ones, which cost half-a-crown.

[JFredUK]

My Dad still refers to decimalised currency as, 'mickey mouse money.'

[FSTOPDR]

GREAT VIDEO!

(as long as I'm not tested on it.)

[MrOregona230]

my grandma and grandad still call 20p pieces sixpences and stuff like that and say thrupence

[750triton]

Decimalisation took over When Heath lied to the nation concerning membership of the EEC

[silver760]

You left out the farthing,groat,guineas,florins­,thruppence,sixpence,half sovereign and sovereign to name a few others that were around.

[crashreboot]

@silver760 The groat wasn't around in Victorian times--that's more Elizabethan. It's five old pence...and I mean ANCIENT pence . And none of these other coins got a mention in the Alastair Sim version of Scrooge.

[TheWelshGirly]

This video would be complete if it mentioned the guinea.

1 guinea = 1 pound and one shilling (21 shillings). Horses are bought in guineas.

[MaceMn]

Being a stupid American I've always wondered about this.Thanks for the lesson.

[godisliberty]

Decimalisation was State organised theivery, a form of robbery. Australia and New Zealand at least based their new "Dollar" when they went decimal on Ten Shillings - 120 old pennies = 100 new cents. We lost 140 pennies - ober half the value of the pound! Robbery!

[EelingStudios]

But what about tanners and florins and farthings, let alone the three penny bits I grew up with? For you youngsters, there were 960 farthings in a pound, 40 tanners [6 penny pieces] and 10 florins, or 'two-bobs'. It wasn't complicated at all if you grew up with it. Oh, and I nearly forgot, 'posh people like private doctors, dentists or solicitors for example charges their fees in guinneas, one guinnea being 21 shillings. Happy days...

[UKSazzy67]

The old pre-decimal system of coinage is completely baffling and illogical to a 42 year old like me. I have always struggled with maths, it's a good job I wasn't born before 1967. What did inummerate people do before then? It's not our fault!

[Ampex196]

You'd have learned it very easily - it would become completely natural to you. I was never great at maths either!

I was 14 yrs old in Feb. 1971 and could easily convert back without any problem 38 years on.

[AnonGemini]

Oh, and half pennyies and quarter pennies were made by actually cutting them in half.

[AnonGemini]

The advantage of the old system is that you can cleanly divide a pound by lots of different numbers. 1/2s, 1/3s, 1/4s

The same reason with have a 60 minute, 12 hour clock

[MiKikaIwaShizaru]

I wish our clocks were decimal actually!

Then 5 would be noon!

7.5 would be 6 pm.

2.5 would be 6 am.

100 minutes an hour!

10 hours a day!

1000 minutes a day!

(simple, just don't try converting!)

[AnonGemini]

Pound means Pound Of Silver.

240 Silver pence were made from a pound of silver.

So a silver penny (the only coin in medieval England) was 1/240th of a pound in weight.

The L.S.D comes from the Roman coins librae, solidi and denarii.

The was a gold Mark used, and I think it was 2/3 of a pound 160 pence. A half Mark would be 1/3 of a pound - 80 pence.

Marks were only ever used to show off as gifts or to apologize.

Just throwing in my tuppence.

[harryj79]

It's a shame they changed it. It might have seemed like a stupid over complicated system, but that's what the British do best. Just look at the House of Lords or cricket. I think we only kept £/s/d as long as we did to confuse foreigners. It did make people better at mental arithmatic.

[disremembrance]

I totally agree, harryj79! Decimal currency is a dumbed-down, finger-counting system for stupid people who can't do mental arithmetic! I think we've definitely got a lot stupider since 1971, and decimalisation (and metrication) is partly responsible for that. However, the old £sd system, had it continued beyond 1971, would eventually have been rendered obsolete anyway by the huge increase in inflation that's taken place since then. A shilling would today be completely worthless- thus pointless!

[Kenn1965]

LOL, I can remember feeling so proud of myself when I had learned to count money. Mum would let me go down to the shops for something small like picking up a loaf. Imagine how defeated I felt when teacher explained that I'd have to forget all of that and re-learn it in new money. Still, it wasn't as difficult as I had thought. It's hard to believe that it's almost gone forty years since all of that happened.

[BNCA70]

don't forget the farthing and groat! and the florin!

[Georgiahulse]

Bit about the letter "h" being seldom pronounced in London, but "everywhere else" in England? Wrong.

Nobody in Nottingham or Derby, if you speak the local dialect, pronounces "h" or often "g".

Example of how we speak in Nottingham: "Am goin to the shops, 'n then i might skip tekkin the dog for a walk cos me 'at might blow off me 'ed in't wind"

[SteveCaftdunt]

Still, after all this time have not had anyone fully & satisfactorily explain that how, on 14/02/71 there were 240 pennies in a pound - x24 hours later that had been shrunk to 100 !!!

Oh & please dont say it was - decimalisation - the greatest rip-off EVER in government monetery policy. :-(

[guspolly]

Because the new penny is worth 2.4 old pence, that's how.

[Ampex196]

I couldn't have put it better myself - not without profanities anyway !

It was a ridiculous exercise to prepare us for the EU & rip us off at the same time.

[Vindsxtono]

Search on Wikipedia for the old systems of weights, measures and money used in Europe and you'll find out that non-decimal systems don't make Britain different but lagging behind

[Ampex196]

Using '10' as a base is very inefficient because it is not readily divisible. Why should we be forced to use it just because our ancient ancestors used their fingers to count. The world is now much more complex - hence your PC (or mac) uses 2-4-8-16-32-64-256...etc. (not 1-10-100..).

Imperial measurements and Lsd currency served us well for a very long time. If it ain't broken - don't fix it !

[Vindsxtono]

Are £sd and the imperial system purely binary?

16 ounces in a pound but 14 pounds in a stone, 12 inches in a foot, 3 feet in a yard, 1,760 yards in a mile, 12 pence in a shilling, 20 shillings in a pound.

Rather a messesimal system!

[Ampex196]

It would all make perfect sense had you been there at the time (which you obviously were not).

Curiously; we still talk of a car's fuel consumption in 'miles per gallon' (a gallon is 8 pints) and still buy beer in pints (568ml).

I weigh 16st 5lbs though I could not say what that is in kilos (without a calculator). And, why should I care?

[BaseTurnComplete]

My mother was a wages clerk in the 1960s and even to this day she can add up instantly in £ s d, carrying on 12 and 20 perfectly every time!

[commiepartyofwarwick]

they should bring back the pounds shillings and pence. they got rid of it here in australia

[darth19750]

that was real money

[seymour333]

great! a fav topic of mine (I read lots of Vic Lit)

[bohoki]

i am more confused now than i was when i were ignorant

[crashreboot]

That's why the decimalised the currency!

[bohoki]

and what the heck is a farthing

[grahamkeithtodd]

a Fartheing was a 1/4 of a penny

[johnofbristol]

Guineas would probably confuse you even more. A guinea was 21 shillings. So a really expensive designer dress might be sold for 79.5 guineas giving the impression that it was less than 80 pounds, whereas in fact it was 83 pounds 9 shillings and 6 pence.