Re: Pounds, Shillings, and Pence

>      I would like to publicly  commend Jon and GZG for his costumer
> service
>      The only problem I have is when he told me what the final cost is
he
> gave it to me in X Pounds, Y Shillings.  What is a Shilling?

1/20 of a pound (sterling) as opposed to a troy ounce, also 1/20 of a
pound (avoidupois) IIRC.

Old style : 1 Pound (l) = 20 shillings (s), 1 shilling = 12 pence(d)
The abbreviations l,s,d came from librii, solidii and denarii, old Roman
coins btw. So there were 240 pence (d) in a pound.

New Style (post 1967) 1 Pound = 100 New Pence (p) but the "New" got
dropped in about 1970 when the old currency was withdrawn. So there are
100 pence (p) in a pound. So a shilling would be 5p.

A crown was 5 shillings, known as "Five Bob". A Half-crown was 2/6,
pronounced "Two-and-six". There were also Florins - 2 shilling pieces,
6d pieces (tanners**), 3d pieces (thrupence), 1/2d pieces (hapenny,
pronounced hay-penny), 1/4d pieces (farthings) which went out about the
time I was born, and groats (4d pieces) and tuppennies (2d) which went
out even earlier.

** known as Zacks in Australia for some reason - the Australian currency
up till 1966 was along similar lines, with an exchange rate of 1:1. They
then switched to dollars and cents. An Australian 5c coin (now the
smallest denomination here) is the same size, shape and weight as the
old Australian and hence UK 6d.  

Even now you have to look carefully to distinguish between a UK 10p
piece, an Australian 20c piece, a NZ 20c piece - and a pre 1968 Florin.
Unless the UK has changed their currency recently ( I was last there 10
years ago). All looked like the old Australian Shilling (Not to be
confused with the Austrian Schilling.)