Back In The Day. Why Were Items Priced In Guineas.

[barney15c]

Looking back at adverts from the 50's and 60's and further back. I noticed items (especially luxury items) priced in Guineas. A Guinea being 21 shillings (£1.05). Does anyone know why that came about. I believe there hasn't been a Guinea coin in circulation for years so why were some things priced like that. Also is there any connection between the coins and the African country.

[tonyav]

I think it was a psychological thing, One Guinea sounds better than £1.1s 0p.
A bit like 99p sounds better than £1.

[Old_Geezer]

Why not ?
Guineas used to be a valid coin and after they were no longer in circulation it was the posh expensive conspicuous consumption items one bought in guineas, not the common items in pounds shillings and pence.

[MargoTester]

H

[MargoTester]

Guinea (British coin) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guinea_(British_coin)

[MargoTester]

barney - I give up!! But somebody else has done it and it should give you the explanation. One of these days I will manage to post a link!

[fiction-factory]

It's odd margo because if I copy and paste what you typed I get a working link
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guinea_(British_coin)

[fiction-factory]

but although it worked in a new window it clearly doesn't work on here

[Ellipsis]

You need the "htttp://" at the beginning for it to be turned into a link on here.

[Retrochic]

Animals and items were sold in guineas at auction. The auctioneer paid out in pounds and got the shillings as fees.

[Ellipsis]

"http://"

[MargoTester]

Thanks factor-fiction, methyl and ellipsis for the advice. It's so frustrating and patience is not my strong suit!!

[fiction-factory]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guinea_%28British_coin%29
I copied it from the wikipedia page without the http bit but it reappears when I paste it- so i can't work out what's going wrong from margo
Have another try margo- right click on the address bar showing the page address, copy it and then paste it into here

[Ellipsis]

In the Chrome browser, when you copy the whole URL it always includes the http part (which it doesn't show but does copy). I don't think all browsers do that. So if you're using Chrome, chances are you will copy and paste a URL that will translate into a link on AB without even trying, whereas with other browsers you may have to try harder.

[Dee Sa]

in those days when I was a young girl and you went to an upmarket dress shop the price [in the window] was always in guineas i.e. 5 guineas was £5 and 5 shillings, so they made that little bit extra each time they sold something.

[Jackdaw33]

In the days when pound coins or sovereigns were made of gold, those made from guinea gold were deemed to be worth more. I remember that fur coats were always priced in guineas. Something priced at 100 gns was £105.

[Peter Pedant]

The sovereign made from gold from guinea in 1717
was devalued and the way they did that was to say that the coin exchangeable for 20s was now to be changed at 21s

which would be a 5% devlauation

sovereigns made after that - from other gold were still to be worth 20s

and yes auctions houses used to operate in guineas

You could write a cheque in guineas - the short form was gns
the number had to be in pounds-shillings and pence