British Money Explained

I noticed that there was a little gap in the youtube videos, as none explained the pre-decimal coinage (i.e. before 1971). So here it is, myself explaining pounds, shillings and pence.

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• british
• quid
• shilling
• pence
• bob
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• mayhemrw
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[elton1981]

In a way it was a shame. Before 1971 you could find coins in circulation which had been around for hundreds of years. Now the oldest coin you'll find will be 1971, and it will be a 1p or a 2p coin.

[mayhemrw]

@elton1981 In theory, yes one could have found older coins in circulation. But in practice, only coins less than 100 years old are legal tender in the UK and silver content was greatly reduced in many coins at various stages. So the oldest coins which ever really cropped up were Victorian pennies and halfpennies.

[siarung]

when i was a kid my dad would call 25p a "dollar" cos you were able to get 4 dollars for yr pound in "his day" what i d like to know is when was the last time the exchange rate was $4 to the £ cos to me today it seems a generous rate

[mayhemrw]

@siarung That's fairly simple to answer. 1948. I used the site measuringworth to find out the relative values

[mayhemrw]

Oh, about $75.80. Somewhere around there. But the rate fluctuates quite a lot.

[tporter2010]

When it was switched over to the decimal system how long did it take to phase it in and take the old money out of circulation?

[mayhemrw]

We went decimal in 1971 officially, but some decimal coins were around since 1969. In fact, the 50p piece was the first in 1969, then the 0.5p, 1p, 2p, 5p, 10p followed in 1971.

The 1d pennies and halfpennies were no longer accepted as of 1971, though the 6d were traded until 1980 (because they were popular).

20p and £1 coins were introduced in 1983, 0.5p were phased out in 1984, 10p coins reduced in size ~1992, 5p coins reduced in size ~1990, £2 introduced in 1997 (permanently).

[Kbaby0991]

i think he's kinda cute! he seems like he would be a gentleman

[Gottla]

My goodness he sounds posh! What British accent is that? He sounds quite effected in the way he speaks. Mind you I am Australian, so there are quite a few accents that sound 'posh' compared to an Australian accent. The boy speaks well, I like it.

[Gottla]

@elton1981 I thought there were still old shilling and florin coins in circulation up until the 1990s when the 5p and 10p coins were made smaller. Up until then the 5p was the same size as the old shilling and the 10p the same size as the old florin. So in that way there were still some of the older coins in circulation in fairly recent modern times. At least I think that's correct from what I've read. Perhaps mayhemrw can confirm this for me.

[nancyps]

What an interesting video! Thank you for sharing.

[XxGAMlNGxX]

thanks mate u just got me really interested in coin :) thnks

[Larkinchance]

Very nice presentation.

Here in the US we still use 12 inches to a foot, 3 foot to a yard. The American military is trying to force the rest of the world to re-adopt that system..

Did you leave out the double florin, 4 shillings?

The only coin worth a damn in this world is the gold sovereign.

Can you get me one with Edward the eighth on it?

[Bungle2010]

Pre-decimalisation coinage may have been "more interesting", but it seems a hellava lot more confusing than what we have now. I'll stick with that, ta very much.

[Enerjee]

Yes, pre-decimalisation was much more interesting AND better for people's mental arithmetic !

[wilkinson8707]

240 pennies =£1 or did because Alfred the great set a penny weight or 24 grains in 9 century

[siarung]

@mayhemrw thanks for yr help.1948 sound about right,he wud have been a young guy then and i assume calling 25p(5 shillings) a dollar was common slang term used by lots of folks back then