Pounds Shillings and Pence

[Vince1973]

What does the L for pound and D for Pence stand for in the "old money"? I assume S is for Shilling but I don't know what the L & D stand for (maybe latin/greek).

[NoGood Boyo]

Latin it is. Libra, sesterces, denarius were Roman coins. The Roman occupied Britain for about 450 years, and that's one of the things they did for us, as well as the roads, sanitation, the aqueduct etc.....

[Oneeyedvic]

So apart from the money, the roads, the sanitation and the aquaducts, What did the Romans do for us?

 

 

Sorry....really couldn't resist it!

[NoGood Boyo]

I was sure that someone would do it! Award yourself an otter's nose with extra ocelot spleen. (Sorry, Vince1973, these are lines from Monty Python's Life of Brian.) My original reply is truthful & accurate.

[Vince1973]

Splitters!

[doorknob]

romani ite domum

romani ite domum

romani ite domum

[thedr]

Are you implying motion towards, doorknob?

[doorknob]

only if thedr is a third person plural present indicative.

[NoGood Boyo]

"Ite" is imperative, and Domus takes the locative! Now write it out 100 times. If it's not finished by daybreak, I'll cut your ....... off.

[Octavius]

Is that the Peoples Front of Judea?

[Vince1973]

No they're splitters. It's the Judean eoples front!!

[NoGood Boyo]

Now, you know that none of us can answer that!

[billywhizz]

Shut up bignose

[billywhizz]

In 800, on Christmas day in Rome, Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne emperor, a title that had been out of use in the West since the abdication of Romulus Augustulus in 476. While this title helped to make Europe independent of Constantinople, Charlemagne did not use the title until much later, as he feared it would create dependence on the Pope.

Pursuing his father's reforms, Charlemagne did away with the monetary system based on the gold sou. Both he and King Offa of Mercia took up the system set in place by Pippin. He set up a new standard, the livre (i.e. pound)� both monetary and unit of weight� which was worth 20 sous (as per the solidi or solidus, and later the shilling) or 240 deniers (as per the denari, and eventually the penny). During this period, the livre and the sou were counting units, only the denier was a coin of the realm.

Charlemagne applied the system to much of the European Continent, and Offa's standard was voluntarily adopted by much of England.

The l, s and d are therefore libra, solidi and denari.

 

[GuavaHalf]

Also worth noting that the pound sign � is a stylised L