Pounds, Shillings, And Pence.

[William51]

Do you remember the old money before decimalization in 1971 ? There were Farthings, Halfpennies, Pennies, Threepenny bits, Tanners (Sixpence), shillings, Florin ( two shillings), half crown, Crown (five shillings),, Ten bob notes ( ten shillings), one Pound, Five Pound, Ten Pound and Twenty Pound notes. Four Farthings in a penny,Twelve pennies in a shilling and twenty shillings in a pound, we thought nothing of working out the complicated sums. But with one hundred pennies to a pound it is simple these days.

[bhg481]

3 pennies weighed an ounce and a halfpenny was 1 inch in diameter. The Florin was brought out as £1/10, so the first decimal coin.

[drmorgans]

I think the 1 shilling / 5 p and 2 shillings / florin / 10p were the first decimal coins

[davebro]

and sovereigns & guineas!

(pieces of eight, ducats, doubloons?)

[Gill1941]

Not "complicated sums" as it was the normal currency and everyone knew it automatically.
Took sometime to get used to the decimal coins.

[jobjockey]

Imagine the confusion if we went back,
I remember working with a ready reckoner
62 items at 1and four pence halipenny, then
adding it all up and paying in around £80
in pound notes 10/- Half crowns ,shillings
sixpences and a load of copper such a race
before the train arrived at New Street

[bhg481]

drmorgans - I'm talking 1849, not 1971 for the florin, later 2-shilling piece.

[bhg481]

Those race-horse chappies still use Guineas.

[burlyshirley]

I remember them all, but farthings weren't in use then. I remember when decimal first came out, we used to call it new pence and I recall going into the PO and asking for a 12 new pence stamp ! The new was dropped eventually.

[ToraToraTora]

bhg: "3 pennies weighed an ounce and a halfpenny was 1 inch in diameter. The Florin was brought out as £1/10, so the first decimal coin. " - it was a 10th of a pound but it was 2 bob, 24d how can that be the first decimal coin? That was 50p (10 bob) actually introduced 2 years before decimalisation in 1969 to replace the 10 bob note.

[bhg481]

TTT - the florin was introduced in 1849, slightly before the 50p.

[THECORBYLOON]

"The withdrawal of the florin, the last of the £sd coins to be used daily, effectively completed the process of decimalisation. In a way, as the Chancellor of the Exchequer observed in his speech at the 1993 Trial of the Pyx, this is ironic, because when the florin was introduced in 1849 it was intended, being one tenth of a pound in value, as a first step towards a decimal coinage."

[ToraToraTora]

"TTT - the florin was introduced in 1849, slightly before the 50p. " - yes but it was not a decimal coin.

[ToraToraTora]

bhg: the florin said "two shillings" on on it, not 10 new pence like its later equivalent. Old florins were used as 10p pieces after decimalisation but they were never a decimal coin themselves.

[THECORBYLOON]

It was a decimal coin, read what the Chancellor said in my post.

[THECORBYLOON]

Which bit of, "it was intended, being one tenth of a pound in value, as a first step towards a decimal coinage", are you having problems with?

[THECORBYLOON]

https://www.royalmintmuseum.org.uk/journal/curators-corner/florin/

[Canary42]

I'm sure that's why we were better at mental arithmetic (as it was then called - is the term still in use at schools today?) in those days.

We also had to master 16 ounces in a pound, 14 pounds in a stone, 8 stone or 112 pounds in a hundredweight (work that one out), 20 hundredweight in a ton.

Then there was 12 inches in a foot, 3 feet in a yard, 1,760 yards in a mile, not to mention the lesser-used chains (22 yards), furlongs (220 yards) and fathoms (6 feet).

(Guineas and furlongs still quite familiar in horse racing circles I believe.)

I have only covered the main ones commonly in use in my youth, there were others like rod, pole, perch, league, etc.

All this gave us a numerate acuity sadly absent today. Nowadays the only non-decimal figures that the moderns have to cope with is 60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour, 24 hours in a day, 28,29,30, or 31 days in a month, 12 months or 365(or 366) days in a year. A major task to decimalise that.

E and O E

[roopower]

I used to like the threepenny bit and have several.

[davebro]

The old big white "fivers" were my favourite. Dad used to get one in his weekly wage packet.

[jno]

we thought nothing of working out the complicated sums

we did? Money sums took up to half the time allotted for arithmetic lessons. Thank heavens kids' brains are now freed up to study computer science. A shame the unit of currency has been reduced from a note to a coin, but there you go.