Fractions of a pence —?
WHat is that worht?
Lesse
Prior to decimalization, the pound was divided into twenty shillings, with each shilling equal to twelve pence, making a total of 240 pence to the pound. The symbol for the shilling was “s” — not from the first letter of the word, but rather from the Latin word solidus.
The symbol for the penny was “d”, from the French word denier, which in turn was from the Latin word denarius (the solidus and denarius were Roman coins).
A mixed sum of shillings and pence such as 3 shillings and 6 pence would be written as “3/6” or “3s 6d” and spoken as “three and six”. 5 shillings would be written as “5s” or, more commonly, “5/-”. There were also coins called crowns, worth 5 shillings, and half crowns, worth 2 shillings 6 pence, florins worth 2 shillings and farthings worth ¼ penny.
The guinea was a gold coin which, between 1717 and 1817 circulated at a value of 21 shillings. Consequently, even after its replacement with the 20 shilling sovereign, an amount of 21 shillings was referred to as “one guinea”. Nicknames for other amounts included tanner for 6 pence, bob for 1 shilling and dollar for 5 shillings.
At decimalization in 1971, the pound was subdivided into 100 new pence, with the word “new” being used on coins until 1981. The symbol for the penny is “p”; hence an amount such as 50p (£0.50) is usually pronounced “fifty p (pee)” rather than “fifty pence”. This also helped to distinguish between new and old pence amounts during the changeover to the decimal system.
So a new P is about 2 US Cents, so the change - under 1% is heardly earth shaking. COmpared to (our now) Dollarette, even smaller.
yawn.
Merry Christmas - youall
Dang, my head hurts.
Decimalisation was very inflationary as the smallest unit of currency (ignoring the farthing) became 2.4 times larger. Merchants just rounded up.
New Hampshire officially adopted the $US in 1952. By then most were using the $US, and the shillings and Pounds were scarce on the street, but the oldsters could still do the calculations and it kept their minds lively and orderly.