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.