I’m planning on going to Univerity in Scotland. I’ve started to think about money, and how much I should save up and such. But the thing is, Since one Canadian dollar is .44 UK pounds, Its a bit harder then I thought. And another thing… Whats a shilling? And how many shillings are in a pound? how many Pennies are in a shilling? Whats a Farthing? and a ha’pence?
I googled it, but the only site I found explaining it was about the 18th century, and I figured that it had probably changed quite a bit since then.
Since 1971, there have been 100 pennies in the pound, and that’s all you have to worry about.
Before 1971, there were 12 pennies in a shilling, and 20 shillings to a pound - and a ha’penny was half a penny, and a farthing (back in the 1950s and before) was a quarter of a penny. But that’s all in the past now. (I quite miss it.)
Here’s a site designed to help North Americans understand UK currency:
“The official currency in the UK is the British Pound Sterling, and is decimal based like the dollar, there are 100 pence in a pound. The coins are 1p, 2p, 5p, 10p, 20p, 50p, 1 pound, 2 pounds. The notes start at 5 pounds, 10, 20, 50, and 100 pounds. There are other currencies as well, though I’m under the understanding that in Scotland, some of the Channel Islands and elsewhere, they have their own printed/minted coins and notes, they are exchanged at the equivalent of the Pound Sterling. Scottish notes are legal tender in the rest of the UK, but Channel Islands notes and coins are not.”
V
They don’t still mint them, but should you happen to get one in your change, you’ll find it’s the same size as a 5p coin and worth the same (that is, it’s still 1/20 of a pound).
No they are not. They are not even legal tender in Scotland. However, that is taking the strict definition of legal tender. For the OP’s purposes, the important point is that you will have no problem spending Scottish notes in England or English notes in Scotland.
Here’s a great site for Scottish currency. Click on the links on the left and you can see pictures of the Scottish notes. They are issued by three different banks. It appears as if the Royal Bank of Scotland continues to issue one pound notes, but the other two do not.
Shows you how much attention I was paying when I was in London last year. (BTW, I did such a good job of guessing how much cash to get exchanged that I came home with the grand sum of £3.40 in my pocket.)
That ought to be the case, and is generally true, but I have seen Scottish money being refused in English shops, much to the annoyance of the customer, who was English and had just returned from a job north of the border.
I’m not aware of an English £100 note in circulation, but there are Scottish £100 notes (or at least, there were when I was at University in Scotland. (They were referred to as “red drinking vouchers” in the circles in which I moved … )
Scottish notes aren’t, technically, legal tender in England, and there are places which will look askance at them - though there shouldn’t be any problem in places which are familiar with Scottish notes (places in England near the Scottish borders, or transport hubs that see a lot of Scottish travellers, that sort of thing.) I will note that, when I was travelling back down to the South of England during vacations, I found it convenient not to take any Scottish notes with me.
Older people still occasionally say “a shilling” to mean 5p. But that’s baffling enough to young people in the UK, no-one’d expect a foreigner to have heard of it. (I’m sure I’ve very occasionally heard my parents use ‘half crown’ but since this would be 12.5 (new) pence, I think I must have been mistaken.)
BTW didn’t we miss a great opportunity to pretend that we still used fathings, shillings, half-crowns, sovereigns and guinneas? Though that would have been cruel to someone bothering to learn our currency
