Pre-decimal

[poliphilo]

At the back of the Penguin Kipps there's a note explaining the pre-decimal British currency- sixpences, florins, guineas.  My first thought was, "surely everybody knows about that"- and then I did some calculations and realised you'd have to be pushing 50 to have ever worked with the old money. It's things like this that make me realise how venerable I am.

Comments

[loxian.livejournal.com]

I can't wrap my head around florins, and I've read loads of old books. And guineas are just a weird idea - one shilling more than a sovereign? But why?

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

A florin is two shillings- and a half crown is two shillings and sixpence. It was a crazy system.

[oakmouse]

You can tell that it was a crazy quilt of different coins brought into circulation during different reigns, to suit the needs of the moment. It's rather fun, actually, although it must have driven foreigners mad.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Changing to the decimal system made life easier for everybody, but- dammit- life isn't supposed to be easy and the old coins were fun!

[oakmouse]

The value of the sovereign fluctuated, during different periods of its history, between 20 and 22 shillings. Sovereigns were in and out of minting, and it wasn't until 1817 that they completely replaced guineas, which had stopped being minted in 1813.

There's a Georgette Heyer Regency-era detective-and-romance novel, The Tollooth, whose plot revolves around the theft of a shipment of the new sovereigns in the spring of 1817. The stolen coins must be hidden away until enough sovereigns are in circulation for them to pass, because they weren't released into circulation until June of that year.

/history lecture

[oakmouse]

Argh, sorry. Tollbooth.

[loxian.livejournal.com]

I read it as tollbooth anyway... I like history lectures. Thank you!

[oakmouse]

You're welcome! I'm a Regency buff and my dad's a coin collector, which leads to some odd bits of knowledge inside my head.

[airstrip.livejournal.com]

So that's what all those terms were about. To be honest, when they assigned British literature to us in grade school, I always thought that they just had a lot of slang terms for their coins.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

The sad thing is that there were interesting slang terms for all the old coins. In the 40 years since, the new coinage seems not to have picked up any at all.

[veronica-milvus.livejournal.com]

There was a move at one time to call the pound coin the "Maggie" after Mrs Thatcher. Because it was bold, brassy, and thought it was a sovereign.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

I'd not heard that! I can see 'clegg' as a low-denomination coin ("I didn't have a clegg to my name!"), but can't decide which one.

[karenkay.livejournal.com]

I *love* this!

[oakmouse]

*dies laughing*

[veronica-milvus.livejournal.com]

I am sure there is a Wikipedia site that covers tanners, thruppeny bits, ha'pennies, shillings, ten bob notes, fivers, groats, farthings, florins, bun pennies, crowns, half crowns, sovereigns, guineas, ponies, monkeys and all other official and unofficial names.

[oakmouse]

This site's awesome. My dad, who is a coin collector, spent days browsing it when he found it.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I regret the old money. It was totally mad, but the coins had a certain heft and dignity. The new coinage is trivial by comparison- though I like the chunky £1 coins

[airstrip.livejournal.com]

I think it might be cost, to be honest. But yeah, I really like chunkier coins as well.

[ibid.livejournal.com]

I remember florins and shilling being used until they resized the 10 and 5 pence coins. It was probably better for everyones math skills too

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

The duodecimal system is mad. The only way it would make sense would be if we had 12 fingers.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

You're a national treasure! (And so am I.)

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

What an excellent way of looking at it.

[veronica-milvus.livejournal.com]

I vaguely remember the old coinage, but when I got to infant school they started teaching us with plastic versions of the decimal coins. so when the real ones came in I was the only one in my family who had a clue. I was seven.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

One of my vivid primary-school memories is of getting stuck on a sum involving pre-decimal currency, and the teacher telling me not to bother because it was being replaced anyway in a few weeks.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

The old coinage was picturesque. I can't say I miss it, but I can feel myself coming over all sentimental when the topic is raised.

[oakmouse]

You're a Living National Treasure. ;)

One of the things I hate about the big modern push to rationalize everything is that too often rationalized measurements and currencies have no cultural features, nothing at all noticeable about them, just a slick finish and a stultifying unanimity.

Not always, of course. Canada did it right in a way, with their looney and tooneys, and I liked the short-lived Sacagawea dollar, the Bicentennial quarter, and the old Kennedy half-dollar. I admit the new pound coin is pretty and I like the dragon one, but IMO it's not as --- well, personable as the old-money ha'penny I have, or as the old Liberty dime.

Ah well. I hate innovation for its own sake anyway. Me being stuffy and stodgy, I suppose.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Thank you :)

I have a few old coins I've picked up over the years- and treasure. Pride of the collection are a George III cartwheel penny- a great chunk of bronze that was the biggest coin even minted in Britain- and an 1870s silver dollar- as flipped and flaunted in innumerable westerns.

[michaleen.livejournal.com]

How well you deserve veneration, too.

I liked the threepence, with the multiple sides, and the big old copper pennies. Never did figure out how all those strange denominations actually worked, though.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

:)

The change was entirely rational- and made life easier, but...

[ibid.livejournal.com]

I gave my Italians a quick guide to imperial measurements which confused them much and mightily

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I'm not surprised