# British Money **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 26, 2009, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-money/515231 "2009-10-26T22:23:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Meurglys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/258eb7/32.png) [@Meurglys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meurglys)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2009, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-money/515231/101 "2009-10-29T12:33:28Z")
When I was in primary school in the early/mid 1960s, a lot of the arithmatic we did was currency calculations. And the times tables we learnt went up to 12, which was very useful for counting money then; not sure if they go beyond the 10 times table these days… And, going back a few posts, 7 items at 3/9d is fairly easy, even all these years on. 7 x 4/- = 28/- 7 x 3d = 1/9d take 1/9d from 28/- = 26/3d or £1:6/3d Most people I knew when I had grown up a bit wouldn’t have had too much trouble doing sums like that while out shopping. (the 'd’s were often dropped from the notation as everybody understood the system) ---
**Author:** ![Yssy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/bbce88/32.png) [@Yssy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yssy)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2009, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-money/515231/102 "2009-10-29T13:20:28Z")
> [@Colophon](#): > > **Yssy** - yes, sorry, in my parochial way I was referring to English notes. Scottish (and Northern Irish) banks also issue £100 notes - are they seen often? Not by me I’m afraid!😛 ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2009, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-money/515231/103 "2009-10-29T13:20:36Z")
> [@chowder](#): > > Exactly. > > If an American purchased an item for $10 and 10 cents the vendor wouldn’t say “That’s ten dollars and ten pence please”,they’d ask for ten dollars and ten cents Nothing in this thread suggests that they would say pence. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2009, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-money/515231/104 "2009-10-29T14:29:10Z")
> [@acsenray](#): > > Nothing in this thread suggests that they would say pence. Um, the sort of transaction I’ve heard: Vendor: “Thazza dolla twenny se’n.” Customer: “Huh?” Vendor: “I _sed_, Thazza dolla twenny se’n.” Customer: “Would you repeat that, please?” Vendor, exasperated now: “That’s _one_ dollar and _twenty-seven_ cents, Mac!” ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2009, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-money/515231/105 "2009-10-29T17:14:42Z")
> [@chowder](#): > > Exactly. > > If an American purchased an item for $10 and 10 cents the vendor wouldn’t say “That’s ten dollars and ten pence please”,they’d ask for ten dollars and ten cents Of course not, but they could ask for ten pennies. Your average American would however normally ask for “ten ten.” ---
**Author:** ![RadicalPi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/radicalpi/32/9806_2.png) [@RadicalPi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RadicalPi)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2009, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-money/515231/106 "2009-10-29T19:16:16Z")
This is probably not the place to cite this Youtube video of Tom Lehrer explaining decimalization to a British audience in a deliberately confusing way. Voilà: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIpr0s52yVk](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIpr0s52yVk) ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2009, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-money/515231/107 "2009-10-30T00:34:11Z")
> [@Desert\_Nomad](#): > > The US will never have a dollar coin that works until they get rid of the paper note. And why they can’t make a two-tone coin like so many other countries is a big mystery. I don’t think the average person would be inclined to riot with pitchforks and torches if the dollar bill were discontinued. They would probably just grumble for a while and move on, as has happened everywhere else in the same circumstance. The biggest single reason it hasn’t been done up until now was the late Ted Kennedy, in whose state the factory that manufactures the paper stock for our currency is located. Clearly the work for this factory would be slashed to a fraction of what it is currently, since that’s all they do, IIRC. Not that one Senator, even a very senior one, should normally be able to stop such a move, but I suspect that the subject of the dollar bill became a sort of political football (“I’ll vote for your bill if you agree to strike the provision removing the dollar bill from the dollar coin legislation”, etc.) ---
**Author:** ![chowder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@chowder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowder)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2009, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-money/515231/108 "2009-10-30T16:52:36Z")
[quote=“thelurkinghorror, post:105, topic:515231”] Of course not, but they could ask for ten pennies. QUOTE] And supposing I’m on holiday in the US of A and I’m asked for ten pennies? Do I fish a British tenpence coin out, toss it casually on the counter and saunter away whistling _Rule Brittania_ ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2009, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-money/515231/109 "2009-10-30T19:00:04Z")
No, but I’m sure they’ll accept a dime. ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2009, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-money/515231/110 "2009-10-30T20:50:02Z")
> [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](#): > > Pence are what Americans would call “cents.” The pound is now divided into 100 pence. There are one pence, two pence, five pence, ten pence, and twenty pence coins. > Although that’s only the last 25 or 30 years; the system before that, like if you were referrring to Dickens, say, was incomprehensible to anyone not born to it. > > Quid is a slang term for pound. Think of it in the same way as, for the US, you could say a buck to mean a dollar. The Brits also have managed to adopt a one-pound coin, something that eludes the ability of Americans to comprehend. What? No dollar Coins? We still have paper and metal one pounds here in the IOM. I hate receiving the paper kind in change. ---
**Author:** ![manila](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e5b9ba/32.png) [@manila](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manila)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2009, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-money/515231/111 "2009-10-30T21:20:28Z")
111 posts and am I really the first to recall the “maggie”? a name adopted in the eighties and nineties, for the then new “gold-coloured” one-pound coin, because, ‘it’s brassy, two-faced and worthless but thinks it’s a sovereign’ Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, had a nauseating tendency to apply some of the more regal characteristics of Her Majesty ( “we are a grandmother!” she anounced following her daughter Carol giving birth) ---
**Author:** ![manila](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e5b9ba/32.png) [@manila](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manila)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2009, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-money/515231/112 "2009-10-30T21:27:53Z")
Damn! missed edit window Incidently, I work with Americans who rotate regularly back to the US and I have been asking them to bring me some $2 bills for some time now. one will not do it because he does not think they exist the other just has apoor memory. So if any one wishes to post me some I can in return post back either Philippine Peso, European Euro, Turkish New Lira, Azeri New Manat, English Pounds, Scottish Pounds or Emirates Dirhams ---
**Author:** ![Cardinal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardinal/32/4000_2.png) [@Cardinal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardinal)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2009, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-money/515231/113 "2009-11-01T05:25:42Z")
> [@jjimm](#): > > The coins changed size - from the old LSD sizes to much smaller (and psychologically representative of their current value, IMO), so the pre-decimal coins mixed up with the decimal coins of the same size and value, were removed from circulation gradually (by the banks, I think). Not sure when they ceased to be legal tender, though. I’m the local anglophile (QI, Top Gear, Kingdom, Have I Got News for You, Jonathan Creek…) but no one has mentioned in this thread what LSD is, and even I don’t know it. Hints? ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2009, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-money/515231/114 "2009-11-01T06:01:36Z")
LSD, which should properly be written £_sd_, is a shorthand for “pounds, shillings, and [old\ pence”, playing off the shorthand for lysergic acid diethylamide. In other words, prior to decimalization, monetary amounts might be written £52 6/8 – meaning 52 pounds six shillings eightpence – very close to decimal £52.33 as it happens. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2009, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-money/515231/115 "2009-11-01T06:45:47Z")
The abbreviation LSD for pounds/shillings/pence existed long before the drug L.S.D. became well known: > **[£sd](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C2%A3sd)** > > £sd (occasionally written Lsd, spoken as "pounds, shillings and pence" or pronounced /ɛl.ɛsˈdiː/ ell-ess-DEE) is the popular name for the pre-decimal currencies once common throughout Europe, especially in the British Isles and hence in several countries of the British Empire and subsequently the Commonwealth. The abbreviation originates from the Latin currency denominations librae, solidi, and denarii. In the United Kingdom, these were referred to as pounds, shillings, and pence (pence being So the abbreviation for British money wasn’t created as a punning reference to the drug. ---
**Author:** ![Cardinal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardinal/32/4000_2.png) [@Cardinal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardinal)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2009, 8:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-money/515231/116 "2009-11-01T08:19:32Z")
> [@Lobsang](#): > > What? No dollar Coins? There are 2 different dollar coins in America that are official currency. The Susan B. Anthony dollar was introduced in the 70s, and suffered greatly as the public was mostly unable to distinguish between this and the common quarter. Both were very similarly sized and colored, and both had ridged edges. The more recent golden George Washington dollar coin somehow never took off. I think I last got one a few years ago in change from a post office stamp machine. Ha! Remember buying stamps to send actual letters! I haven’t sent a postal letter in a few months. I probably use 5 a year. They have to use a different method of distribution. Maybe the mint will have to cut off all paper singles entirely. Then the real whining will start… ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2009, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-money/515231/117 "2009-11-01T12:53:55Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > The abbreviation LSD for pounds/shillings/pence existed long before the drug L.S.D. became well known: > > [£sd - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C2%A3sd) > > So the abbreviation for British money wasn’t created as a punning reference to the drug. **Wendell** is of course correct. I screwed up in revising my post, which was originally suggesting, in part, that the abbreviation gained popularity as a punning reference. On rereading it, it seems that that suggestion was kist before I submitted the post. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2009, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-money/515231/118 "2009-11-01T13:16:37Z")
> [@Polycarp](#): > > LSD, which should properly be written £_sd_, is a shorthand for “pounds, shillings, and [old\ pence”, . To be exact it comes from the Roman coins “librae, solidi, denarii”. The £ is an ornate letter L, and it’s perfectly acceptable to write LSD, you don’t have to write it as £sd. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2009, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-money/515231/119 "2009-11-01T14:03:21Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > To be exact it comes from the Roman coins “librae, solidi, denarii”… The more I think about this, the odder it seems. Were the Roman coins ever used at the same time as pounds, shillings and pence? Did their names hang on as generic terms for coins after the Romans left Britain? How did the names come to be used as English abbreviations? ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2009, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-money/515231/120 "2009-11-01T14:20:00Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > The more I think about this, the odder it seems. Were the Roman coins ever used at the same time as pounds, shillings and pence? Did their names hang on as generic terms for coins after the Romans left Britain? How did the names come to be used as English abbreviations? The term “denarius” was used in formal documents (in Latin) for the Anglo-Saxon _sceats_ which were the origin of the silver penny. I am unclear on whether Latin _libra_ first meant a weight or the scales used to weigh it, but it early came to represent a measure of weight that in England came to represent one pound. The money value “pound” came from the fact that 240 silver denarii taken togethr weighed one pound Troy weight, hence “one pound [of] sterling [silver].” TTBOMK, the shilling came from the Danelaw, where it had the Nordic name _skilling_, and was equated with the Roman measure _solidus_, as one element in the medieval writers’ efforts to find Latin terms with which to refer to Germanic institutions. (For example, the _eorlesmoot_ (And I may be off on the Anglo-Saxon there) was the local _eorl_ meeting with the chief landholders of his county. After the Danish and Norman invasions, and scribes rendering the overlay of institutions into Latin, this gave rise to the _concilium comitiae_, which in turn became the modern “county council.”) The skilling was, however, money of account until Elizabethan-Jacobean times, when a coin in that denomination was finally struck. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-money/515231.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-money/515231.md?page=7)