Re: Pounds, Shillings, and Pence

Alan E Brain wrote:
> 
> >	 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)

1 Pound Sterling = 20 shillings = 240 pence
1 Troy Pound = 12 ounces = 240 pennyweights

Pounds Sterling has been historically associated with silver. One
realignment in the price gold w.r.t. silver left us with a gold
"one Pound coin" called a Guinea that was worth 21 Shillings. You
can still write cheques in Guineas and luxury items (perfume,
racehorses) are still valued in Guineas, now worth 1.05 Pounds,
the accounting unit outliving the (valuable gold) coin as legal
tender. 

> The abbreviations l,s,d came from librii, solidii and denarii, old
Roman coins btw. So there were 240 pence (d) in a pound.

FWIW, The word "soldier" derives from solidii. Many old European
countries used their own L.s.d currencies. France had a "Livre",
Italy still has a "Lire".

[...]
> 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.)

New 10p and 5p coins are much smaller, and new 2p and 1p coins are
plated steel, instead of copper alloy.

AFAIK, Decimalisation was planned for in the nineteenth century,
it just took us a century to get around to it.

-- 
David Brewer

"It is foolishness and endless trouble to cast a stone at every