# English money before decimalization **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 29, 2012, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-money-before-decimalization/642477 "2012-11-29T16:32:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2012, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-money-before-decimalization/642477/1 "2012-11-29T16:32:25Z")
Can someone give me a comprehensive list of the terms – both official and slang – for pre-decimal English money. Pence, half-crown, crown, pound, bob, quid, guinea, shilling – what else? What are they in relation to each other? ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2012, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-money-before-decimalization/642477/2 "2012-11-29T16:41:05Z")
1 pound=20 shillings 1 guinea=21 shillings(slang) 1 crown=5 shillings 1 shilling=12 pence 1 bob=1 shilling(slang) 1 quid=1 pound(slang) ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Shine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr_shine/32/464_2.png) [@Mr\_Shine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Shine)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2012, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-money-before-decimalization/642477/3 "2012-11-29T16:41:35Z")
Bob is slang for shilling Quid is slang for pound. 1 penny= 4 farthings/2 ha’pennies 12 pennies=1 shilling 20 shillings=1 pound a crown is 5 shillings (Take a guess how much a half crown is). A guinea is 21 shillings or 1L 1S Values are generally in pounds(L), Shillings(S) and pence(D) ---
**Author:** ![Bisected8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a4c791/32.png) [@Bisected8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bisected8)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2012, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-money-before-decimalization/642477/4 "2012-11-29T16:59:35Z")
[TV Tropes has quite a nice “Useful notes” page on the matter.](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/UsefulNotes/OldBritishMoney) Including some history, details about their modern counterparts and a list of slang terms. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2012, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-money-before-decimalization/642477/5 "2012-11-29T17:01:30Z")
Nitpick - [guinea was variable, but usually just over a pound.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guinea_%28British_coin%29)It was struck from gold, hence the variability. Now it means 21 shillings, or 1 pound 5 p., and there is no coin for it. The concept is used mostly at betting places, or occasionally other places to include a surcharge (to receive X pounds of something, you pay X guineas). ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2012, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-money-before-decimalization/642477/6 "2012-11-29T17:04:41Z")
> [@runner pat](#): > > 1 guinea=21 shillings(slang) I wouldn’t say that it’s slang. It was the name of a gold coin whose value fluctuated against paper coinage with the value of gold, until it was eventually fixed at 21 shillings. The name came from the fact that the main source of gold was Guinea in Africa. The last issue of guineas was during the Peninsular War. The term continued to be used as an accounting term, for prices for high-class institutions, such as bespoke tailors and solicitor’s fees. Gone with decimalisation, of course. See the wiki article: [Guinea (British Coin)](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guinea_(British_coin)) ---
**Author:** ![sidecar\_jon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@sidecar\_jon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sidecar_jon)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2012, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-money-before-decimalization/642477/7 "2012-11-29T17:05:56Z")
tanner = silver six pence (6D) Thrupenybit = three penny coin (bit) going further back a Farthing = quarter penny also know and a wren or jenny wren (it had the bird on its revers) ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2012, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-money-before-decimalization/642477/8 "2012-11-29T17:07:03Z")
> [@Bisected8](#): > > [TV Tropes has quite a nice “Useful notes” page on the matter.](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/UsefulNotes/OldBritishMoney) Including some history, details about their modern counterparts and a list of slang terms. From the above. > [@](#): > > Great Britain switched to decimal currency in 1971. This was shortly after it began to switch over to the metric system; despite this, their unit of currency was not changed from the Pound to the Kilogram. (Rimshot) 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2012, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-money-before-decimalization/642477/9 "2012-11-29T17:07:05Z")
And pence is simply the plural of penny ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2012, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-money-before-decimalization/642477/10 "2012-11-29T17:12:26Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > And pence is simply the plural of penny Yes - “pence” was the odd item out on the OP’s list. A “florin” in recent English use was two shillings, later specimens were just two-shilling coins. They and the half-crown existed concurrently (the crown itself was seldom seen, primarily a commemorative coin). ---
**Author:** ![fumster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e9c0ed/32.png) [@fumster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fumster)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2012, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-money-before-decimalization/642477/11 "2012-11-29T17:13:34Z")
I visited the UK the summer after the shift to decimal. I had to help some of the older shop keeper figure out change. Can’t imagine how hard it was to change your currency after using it your whole life. ---
**Author:** ![sidecar\_jon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@sidecar\_jon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sidecar_jon)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2012, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-money-before-decimalization/642477/12 "2012-11-29T17:27:17Z")
Some people still say Bob,usually ten bob (which used to be a note) in an ironic sort of way. Of course some also have a whole language of cash thats very mystifying,bung us a monkey and i will explain all… [http://www.aldertons.com/money.htm](http://www.aldertons.com/money.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Bisected8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a4c791/32.png) [@Bisected8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bisected8)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2012, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-money-before-decimalization/642477/13 "2012-11-29T17:40:38Z")
^ I’m pretty sure a bob was a shilling (I’ve only ever heard it used in the phrase “a few bob” to mean an indeterminate amount of money). ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2012, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-money-before-decimalization/642477/14 "2012-11-29T17:40:52Z")
On a side note: I don’t have a cite, but I clearly remember a news story regarding a British suicide about the time the UK switched to decimal. It was an English lady whose suicide note said she was distraught over the new system. Really. ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2012, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-money-before-decimalization/642477/15 "2012-11-29T17:46:19Z")
> [@sidecar\_jon](#): > > Some people still say Bob,usually ten bob (which used to be a note) in an ironic sort of way. Of course some also have a whole language of cash thats very mystifying,bung us a monkey and i will explain all.. > [http://www.aldertons.com/money.htm](http://www.aldertons.com/money.htm) Some people in the US say “two bits” to mean 25 cents or a quarter even though Spanish _reales_ haven’t been legal tender here for over a hundred years. Eight reales were considered equal to a USD. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2012, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-money-before-decimalization/642477/16 "2012-11-29T19:07:51Z")
And 2 pennies is tuppence, tuppence, tuppence a bag. I had that burned into my brain at a very impressionable age. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2012, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-money-before-decimalization/642477/17 "2012-11-29T19:14:27Z")
and tuppence is married to tommy. ---
**Author:** ![sidecar\_jon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@sidecar\_jon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sidecar_jon)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2012, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-money-before-decimalization/642477/18 "2012-11-29T19:51:31Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > and tuppence is married to tommy. I hope she "kept her hand on her tuppence before marriage and has great thrupenybits… ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2012, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-money-before-decimalization/642477/19 "2012-11-29T20:41:11Z")
> [@fumster](#): > > I visited the UK the summer after the shift to decimal. I had to help some of the older shop keeper figure out change. Can’t imagine how hard it was to change your currency after using it your whole life. We had public information TV in the run-up to the change-over. It wasn’t that hard as the old and new were equivalents at increments of 6d/2.5p (a 1/2 p coin was in circulation until the early 1980s). So if you wanted to buy something priced at 6 1/2 p and only had old money, you’d hand over 1 s 6d (decimal equivalent 7 1/2 p) and receive 1p in change. It seemed simple to me as a ten-year-old. ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2012, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-money-before-decimalization/642477/20 "2012-11-29T20:56:26Z")
Of course, 1p, 2p, etc., is short for 1 pence, 2 pence. In the olde days, it would cost 2 pence to use a public bathroom, so you would show up and show them the money and say, “I have 2p”. That was forgotten over time, and now we just say we have to pee. The paragraph above is not meant to be factual, but it does sound like something you’d see debunked on Snopes, like “pluck yew”, doesn’t it? Seemed like the original question was sufficiently answered to insert a “joke” here in GQ. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-money-before-decimalization/642477.md?page=2)