# Please explain the coins used in UK. **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 29, 2006, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-the-coins-used-in-uk/374634 "2006-09-29T18:04:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**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 1, 2006, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-the-coins-used-in-uk/374634/61 "2006-10-01T16:56:57Z")
[QUOTE=Monty] I don’t understand this. All of our coins have individual values. [/QUOTE] **jjimm** , did you mean that over there you can pull a few coins out of your pocket and actually buy something like a beer or sandwich, instead of having to break paper for virtually everything? ---
**Author:** ![chowder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@chowder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowder)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2006, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-the-coins-used-in-uk/374634/62 "2006-10-01T17:26:50Z")
[QUOTE=Spectre of Pithecanthropus] **jjimm** , did you mean that over there you can pull a few coins out of your pocket and actually buy something like a beer or sandwich, instead of having to break paper for virtually everything? [/QUOTE] Yep, sure can 😃 ---
**Author:** ![chowder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@chowder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowder)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2006, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-the-coins-used-in-uk/374634/63 "2006-10-01T17:28:46Z")
I should have added that you don’t even need a few coins. A £2 coin will get you a beer and £1 a sandwich…with change:) ---
**Author:** ![waterj2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/858c86/32.png) [@waterj2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/waterj2)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2006, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-the-coins-used-in-uk/374634/64 "2006-10-01T17:31:13Z")
[QUOTE=Usram] The 20p piece has always been a rounded heptagon, like the 50p but smaller. It is not lierally heptagonal, it has to be a curve of constant width to work in vending machines. [/QUOTE] A [reuleaux heptagon](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reuleaux_triangle)? Same principle that the [Wankel rotary engine](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wankel_engine) uses. Yeah, I just brought that up so I could say Wankel rotary engine. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2006, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-the-coins-used-in-uk/374634/65 "2006-10-01T17:37:11Z")
[QUOTE=chowder] A £2 coin will get you a beer [/QUOTE] Some beer-like liquid from Hyde’s, maybe ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2006, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-the-coins-used-in-uk/374634/66 "2006-10-01T17:41:27Z")
[QUOTE=Spectre of Pithecanthropus] **jjimm** , did you mean that over there you can pull a few coins out of your pocket and actually buy something like a beer or sandwich, instead of having to break paper for virtually everything? [/QUOTE] Precisely. I think it’s a conspiracy by the manufacturers of pocket material. ---
**Author:** ![Surok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@Surok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surok)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2006, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-the-coins-used-in-uk/374634/67 "2006-10-01T20:15:12Z")
[QUOTE=chowder] I should have added that you don’t even need a few coins. A £2 coin will get you a beer and £1 a sandwich…with change:) [/QUOTE] A very small beer? And a very bad sandwich? ---
**Author:** ![Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cc9497/32.png) [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2006, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-the-coins-used-in-uk/374634/68 "2006-10-01T22:23:18Z")
£2.09 will get you a pint of Bellhaven Best around here. Last year you could get pints from £1.56, although prices have risen considerably as of late. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2006, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-the-coins-used-in-uk/374634/69 "2006-10-01T22:35:39Z")
Inflation, tell me about it. First pint I ever bought cost 45p. Mind you, I was only 12. ---
**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 2, 2006, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-the-coins-used-in-uk/374634/70 "2006-10-02T03:30:42Z")
[QUOTE=jjimm] Inflation, tell me about it. First pint I ever bought cost 45p. Mind you, I was only 12. [/QUOTE] When I was in Germany a pint cost 90 pfennigs, or only about $.40 American. This was in a student bar/disco attached to the student community I lived in, and it was a bit more expensive in town, but still. U.S. quarters come to the banks in rolls of 40, it astonishes me that that many coins–our most valuable ones at that–aren’t enough to buy burgers, fries, and sodas for two. ---
**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:** [October 2, 2006, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-the-coins-used-in-uk/374634/71 "2006-10-02T03:33:10Z")
[QUOTE=yabob] (Some of the late 19th early 20th century designs had things on the obverse other than portraits of dead politicians, too. The [1896 “educational” series](http://www.fahrneyspens.com/item--i-C7013--m-574_581.html) was interesting, but not well received. “Electricity” was too scantily clad on the 5, and people objected.) [/QUOTE] I don’t care _how_ scantily-clad my “Electricity” is, as long as it comes when I throw the switch. 😃 [QUOTE=Alive At Both Ends] Dutch pre-Euro notes had embossed dots on the paper for the benefit of the blind. It wasn’t braille, just one dot for the least valuable note, two for the next most valuable, and so on. [/QUOTE] Canadian notes have a similar feature: differently-arranged patches of bumps. The notes are all the same size, but different colours. And only one, the $20, has the Queen on it (the back has cool Haida art). ---
**Author:** ![chowder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@chowder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowder)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2006, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-the-coins-used-in-uk/374634/72 "2006-10-02T05:35:54Z")
[QUOTE=Surok] A very small beer? And a very bad sandwich? [/QUOTE] Not at all. My local sells Carling Black Label for £1.84 a pint Bitter for £1.69 (cask) £1.59 (keg) Mild for £1.59 (cask) £1.49 (keg) Guinness is really expensive at £2.19. Lots of Working Mens Clubs sell beers of all kinds at £1 per pint, Guinness excluded The shop just across the road from the pub sells decent sarnies ranging from 0.99p for Egg Mayo to the really expensive stuff such as prawn for £1.59 ---
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2006, 8:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-the-coins-used-in-uk/374634/73 "2006-10-02T08:10:29Z")
The joy of returning home to a small town when living in the big (for Northern Ireland) city, two quid for a very nice pint. A tenner will break down into five coins each one worth a beer, it starts to feel like you’re trading in beer tokens all of a sudden 😛 ---
**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:** [October 2, 2006, 8:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-the-coins-used-in-uk/374634/74 "2006-10-02T08:24:21Z")
[QUOTE=yabob] The smaller bills insist on getting lost among the larger ones in your billfold. [/QUOTE] I don’t find this actually to be true; variance in the size actually _helps_ to keep them segregated; in those cases where I carry multiple pieces of paper money, I just stack them in ascending order of value and I can tell at a glance what denominations I have in my wallet - and it isn’t difficult at all to insert, say, a £10 note received as change into its proper place in the stack (given that there are only three denominations likely to be in there). ---
**Author:** ![slaphead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9bcb4/32.png) [@slaphead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slaphead)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2006, 9:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-the-coins-used-in-uk/374634/75 "2006-10-02T09:04:53Z")
[QUOTE=chowder] My local sells Carling Black Label for £1.84 a pint [/QUOTE] Even in London a Samuel Smiths pub will sell you a pint of Sovereign Best Bitter for about £1.80. Note the word '‘about’ - every friday we work our way through about five to seven pints each, and none of us know exactly how much it costs, other than it used to cost £1.74 when we first started going there. All that matters is, it’s cheap 😃 and tasty 😃😃 And even the not-very-cheap folks at Pret a Manger will sell you a [tuna sandwich](http://www.pret.com/menu/sandwiches/698.shtm) for £1.25, so £2 is actually a pretty useful amount. ---
**Author:** ![Surok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@Surok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surok)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2006, 9:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-the-coins-used-in-uk/374634/76 "2006-10-02T09:40:40Z")
**chowder** and **slaphead** , I stand corrected. I’ll start collecting coins for my next trip over. ---
**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:** [October 2, 2006, 10:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-the-coins-used-in-uk/374634/77 "2006-10-02T10:26:42Z")
[QUOTE=jjimm] Mind you, I was only 12. [/QUOTE] Drinking at 12? I blame gay marriage. ---
**Author:** ![slaphead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9bcb4/32.png) [@slaphead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slaphead)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2006, 10:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-the-coins-used-in-uk/374634/78 "2006-10-02T10:38:38Z")
[QUOTE=Mangetout] Drinking at 12? I blame gay marriage. [/QUOTE] Gay marriage? I blame drinking at 12. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2006, 10:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-the-coins-used-in-uk/374634/79 "2006-10-02T10:50:33Z")
Starting at 12? I’ve usually had two or three pints by then, at least on the weekend. ---
**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:** [October 2, 2006, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-the-coins-used-in-uk/374634/80 "2006-10-02T11:16:40Z")
Actually; the cause is pretty obvious; **jjimm** must have been exposed to breasts during his early childhood. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-the-coins-used-in-uk/374634.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-the-coins-used-in-uk/374634.md?page=5)