# 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:** 2
**Author:** ![ctnguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@ctnguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ctnguy)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2012, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-money-before-decimalization/642477/21 "2012-11-29T21:03:16Z")
> [@sidecar\_jon](#): > > Thrupenybit = three penny coin (bit) Also, curiously, known as a “tickey” in South Africa before we got our own currency. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2012, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-money-before-decimalization/642477/22 "2012-11-29T22:02:53Z")
My mom once told me of visiting the UK at a time (pre-decimalization) when the exchange rate was about $2.4 to the pound (and hence, a pence was a cent). So the prices of all small things looked perfectly normal, but the prices of large things looked way off. ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2012, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-money-before-decimalization/642477/23 "2012-11-29T22:16:54Z")
“Pence” is plural, equivalent to “pennies”, so “one pence” is incorrect. Speaking of plurals, the slang terms “quid” and “bob” are both singular and plural. You wouldn’t say “three quids”, for example. The same goes for some other slang terms like “nicker”, which also means “pound”. In informal use, “pound” itself is also often used as a plural. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2012, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-money-before-decimalization/642477/24 "2012-11-29T22:24:51Z")
> [@Malacandra](#): > > 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.** It’s so simple, so very simple That only a child can do it![indent][indent]-- “New Math”, Tom Lehrer, 1965[/indent] [/indent] ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2012, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-money-before-decimalization/642477/25 "2012-11-29T22:32:53Z")
> [@sidecar\_jon](#): > > I hope she "kept her hand on her tuppence before marriage and has great thrupenybits… Thruppence and sixpence each day, just to drive to my baby. ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2012, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-money-before-decimalization/642477/26 "2012-11-30T00:32:05Z")
So are **ha’penny** and **tuppence** just cockney portmanteaus of ‘half-penny’ and ‘two-pence’? Trouble & strife, Bob’s yer uncle, guvna’… 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2012, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-money-before-decimalization/642477/27 "2012-11-30T00:36:12Z")
Seriously, how the hell did the Brits ever conquer the damn world thinking like that. It’s a mystery. ---
**Author:** ![Daylate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9dc877/32.png) [@Daylate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daylate)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2012, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-money-before-decimalization/642477/28 "2012-11-30T00:46:06Z")
I made a three week trip to Nigeria in 1971, when they were still using the pound - shilling - pence currency. It’s amazing how fast one can start thinking in another currency under a total immersion situation. In fact, when I returned to the U.S. I found myself, for a few days, automatically translating our decimal stuff to the British system. ---
**Author:** ![steviep24](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5f9b8f/32.png) [@steviep24](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/steviep24)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2012, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-money-before-decimalization/642477/29 "2012-11-30T00:53:39Z")
> [@Jonathan\_Chance](#): > > Seriously, how the hell did the Brits ever conquer the damn world thinking like that. > > It’s a mystery. It’s a mystery the United States is still a world power with the outdated system of measurement we still use here. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2012, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-money-before-decimalization/642477/30 "2012-11-30T00:59:10Z")
> [@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) I only dimly remember decimalisation (I was three years old at the time), but it still offended me when a recent McDonalds advert ([this one](http://vimeo.com/8730003), in fact) claimed ‘one bob’ was one pound. ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2012, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-money-before-decimalization/642477/31 "2012-11-30T01:22:21Z")
> [@Malacandra](#): > > 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). Under the LSD system, a shilling was 1/20 of a pound, and a florin therefore was 1/10 of a pound. Shillings and florins were still being used as 5p and 10p coins (they were the same size and shape) until the new, smaller 5p’s were introduced in 1991. ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2012, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-money-before-decimalization/642477/32 "2012-11-30T01:58:00Z")
> [@steviep24](#): > > It’s a mystery the United States is still a world power with the outdated system of measurement we still use here. Bah! Grandpa Simpson:\*\*\* “My car get thirty rods to the hogshead and that’s how I like it!”\*\*\* ---
**Author:** ![Bisected8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a4c791/32.png) [@Bisected8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bisected8)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2012, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-money-before-decimalization/642477/33 "2012-11-30T02:50:22Z")
> [@Jonathan\_Chance](#): > > Seriously, how the hell did the Brits ever conquer the damn world thinking like that. > > It’s a mystery. They were all to busy working it out themselves while we took over. ---
**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 30, 2012, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-money-before-decimalization/642477/34 "2012-11-30T03:32:04Z")
> [@RitterSport](#): > > 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. Actually, you’re not far off. > **[Spend A Penny - Meaning & Origin Of The Phrase](https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/spend-a-penny.html)** > > What's the meaning and origin of the phrase 'Spend a penny'? ---
**Author:** ![Springtime\_for\_Spacers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Springtime\_for\_Spacers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Springtime_for_Spacers)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2012, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-money-before-decimalization/642477/35 "2012-11-30T03:58:46Z")
Something not covered yet is the way prices were expressed in shillings and pence. Five shillings and fivepence for example would be said as five and six and written 5/6. I was at school when the change happened and we were drilled in the new money. Also afaik every household was issued a conversion chart and every shop displayed one. For a period before and after the conversion prices on goods were given in both currencies. Old people had the most difficulty, probably because of sight and cognitive deterioration, it was quite common for them to just dump change into a shop assistant’s hand and ask them to take what was owed. One pair of elderly shopkeepers simply cashed up in old money on the day before the changeover, left the shop and never returned. After they died about thirty years later the frozen in time shop was rediscovered and is now a museum. Rampant inflation in the years following decimalisation pretty much destroyed any sense of continuity over the value of money. Your chocolate bar costing 6d, sixpence, in old money in 1970 (2 1/2p) would have cost 20p (4s) by 1980. ---
**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 30, 2012, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-money-before-decimalization/642477/36 "2012-11-30T05:10:08Z")
> [@Springtime\_for\_Spacers](#): > > Something not covered yet is the way prices were expressed in shillings and pence. Five shillings and fivepence for example would be said as five and six and written 5/6. They charged an extra penny? What a con. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2012, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-money-before-decimalization/642477/37 "2012-11-30T06:21:34Z")
> [@sidecar\_jon](#): > > 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) The thrupenny bit was copper (I suppose actually bronze) and dodecagonical in shape (12 sided). Earlier, up to 1937, it had been a small silver coin, similar to, but I think a bit smaller and thinner than, the American dime. These would still very occasionally turn up in circulation in the 1960s. The silver sixpence (tanner) was a bit larger and thicker than the American dime (though not so thick as the nickel), and in very common circulation. It was commonly used for slot machines and , I think for that reason, continued to be legal tender (value 2.5p) and in circulation for several years after the 1971 decimalization, although I don’t think they continued to be minted. Florins (silver two shilling coins, a bit larger than a US quarter) continued to circulate after decimalization as 10p coins, and the new 10p coins (which I think were also already in circulation as florins before decimalization) were the same size and shape). Likewise, pre-decimalization shillings continued to circulate as 5p coins. (More recently, though, the size of all the coins has been reduced. The current 5p coin is smaller than the old sixpence.) However, until shortly before decimalization, the half-crown (worth 2s 6d), slightly larger than the florin and close in size to the old penny, was more common in circulation than the florin. According to Wikipedia the farthing ceased to be legal tender at the end of 1960. I am a bit surprised it was so early. I can remember using them when I was a child. You could buy one Fruit Salad or Blackjack chew for a farthing. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2012, 6:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-money-before-decimalization/642477/38 "2012-11-30T06:35:54Z")
> [@Hail\_Ants](#): > > So are **ha’penny** and **tuppence** just cockney portmanteaus of ‘half-penny’ and ‘two-pence’? Trouble & strife, Bob’s yer uncle, guvna’… 😃 No they were used by everyone, not just cockneys. The terms pony (£25) and monkey (£500) are largely confined to cockneys, though. (Or were until TV shows like \*Minder \*popularized them.) Has anyone mentioned “nicker” used, like “quid”, to mean pounds? These are mass nouns, not pluralized, so £500 would be “five hundred nicker” or “five hundred quid”, although you can also say “a quid” (I don’t think “a nicker” is common). “Nicker” is probably largely just a cockney or London term, but “quid” is more universal. ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2012, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-money-before-decimalization/642477/39 "2012-11-30T06:59:22Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > The thrupenny bit was copper (I suppose actually bronze) and dodecagonal in shape (12 sided). …if by “copper” or “bronze” you mean yellow brass - the only brass coin we had in a mixture of copper and “silver” (really cupro-nickel by then). The old threepennies - up to George V - were real silver; my dad still has one or two about the place. I’ve mentioned before that the old coins had a long lifespan - there were certainly pennies and halfpennies about the place from the late 1800s, worn very smooth in some cases but still recognisable. The silver coins were absentees though as they had long since been recalled for the precious metal. These days, even pennies and 2p aren’t solid bronze; they’ve gone the way of cheap-ass foreign money, and are just plating over still baser metal. Le sigh. You remember right about the cross-circulation of the 5p and shilling equivalents. 5p and 10p came in circulation in 1968 as shilling and two-shilling coins, with the 50p following a year later as an alternative to the ten-shilling note (half-sovereigns were long gone 😃 ). ---
**Author:** ![Noel\_Prosequi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b19c9b/32.png) [@Noel\_Prosequi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noel_Prosequi)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2012, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-money-before-decimalization/642477/40 "2012-11-30T12:15:10Z")
Ah yes, silver threepennies and sixpences. Grandmothers used to bake them into Xmas puddings as surprises for the kids. Modern alloy coins don’t work for that purpose -I guess they are too reactive to the chemicals in the pudding. So grannies keep a stash of the old coins around just for Xmas each year, but they have to collect them to recycle for the next year. Cute custom. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-money-before-decimalization/642477.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-money-before-decimalization/642477.md?page=3)