# Why decimalized currency? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 29, 2009, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-decimalized-currency/494705 "2009-04-29T05:21:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**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:** [April 29, 2009, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-decimalized-currency/494705/41 "2009-04-29T20:48:37Z")
> [@hibernicus](#): > > And much, _much_ later, French people were still referring to prices of expensive items such as houses in old francs. Even in the 1990s, if someone said “30 millions”, it was possible that they meant FFR 300,000. This usage may have persisted until the franc was replaced by the euro. So you agree with the second sentence of my post, then? 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![Mk\_VII](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Mk\_VII](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mk_VII)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2009, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-decimalized-currency/494705/42 "2009-04-29T23:49:44Z")
The arguments in favour of ‘easier reckoning’ disappeared anyway when calculators came along to do the number-crunching for you. Computers could have been programed to cope with £.s.d perfectly well in the 1960s. The government just didn’t want to. ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2009, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-decimalized-currency/494705/43 "2009-04-30T00:42:59Z")
But calculators work in decimals too. You’d want a specialised currency one to work out, say, 17% VAT of a pound. ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2009, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-decimalized-currency/494705/44 "2009-04-30T01:17:36Z")
> [@aldiboronti](#): > > Actually the math was far easier and more convenient in the duodecimal system. Units of 12 and 240 were far easier to subdivide than units of 10 and 100, being more conducive to factorization. > [@glee](#): > > Having used UK currency all my life, I don’t agree at all. :eek: > > We had to learn our 11 and 12 times tables at school, purely to cope with the currency. > > When 12 pennies (d) made a shilling (12d) and 20 shillings (s) made a pound you were constantly multiplying by 12, or doing other timewasting calculations: > “It costs 5s 3p. I’ve got 7s 2p, so if I buy it I will have 1s 11p change.” > > I have handled a farthing (0.25d), a halfpenny (0.5d), a threepenny bit (3p), a sixpence (6d), a shilling (1s) a half-crown (2.5s) and a guinea (£1 1s). > (I don’t remember florins (2s) or crowns (5s), but there you go.) > > So you have a pocket full of coins: > > 5 half-crowns > 3 shilling > 7 sixpences > 1 threepenny bit > 2 halfpennies > 6 farthings > > Can you afford to buy something worth £1 4s 7p? :rolleyes: > If so, how much change will you have? :smack: > [@Giles](#): > > No, you have: > 12/6 > 3/- > 3/6 > 0/3 > 0/1 > 0/1.5 > > Total: 19/5.5 > So you need a tanner and a ha’penny to have exactly a quid. Giles, your maths is excellent. 🙂 But having to list all the coin values as you do, plus mod 12 the pence proves that aldiboronti was wrong to say the maths was easier with duodecimal! ---
**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2009, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-decimalized-currency/494705/45 "2009-04-30T01:20:43Z")
> [@fandango](#): > > Shouldn’t there then be a need for a “super unit” of currency–we have an unofficial one where a person says they make “80K” or a car costs “30 grand”–but the fact that we don’t have those as actual units seems to imply that reading and writing strings of zeros isn’t a problem. It is a problem. That’s _why_ we have informal conventions like “80K” and “30 grand”, and sllghly more formal conventions like those employed by accountants who will draw up columns of figures witn a note to indicate that every figure in the column represents either 1,000 or 1,000,000 units of currency. These issues are magnified if we have to employ such conventions when discussing the price of everyday items like soap or matches, rather than occasional purchases like cars or houses. When you think about it, the fact that we have developed such conventions for dealing with large amounts, but not for dealing with small amounts, suggests that our basic currency unit is too small, rather than too big. ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2009, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-decimalized-currency/494705/46 "2009-04-30T01:43:31Z")
> [@glee](#): > > We had to learn our 11 and 12 times tables at school, purely to cope with the currency. Now you’ve got me really curious, but this will be a question for American dopers with kids. Are the times tables still taught here up through 12? As a child in the 70’s, we had to memorize the times tables through 12 as well. Soon afterward we learned how to multiply any arbitrary length numbers (as someone pointed out to me here, they teach that differently these days, too), which point having learnt the 11’s and 12’s by rote seemed rather stupid and redundant and arbitrary. Why not 13? Why not up to 14? Now I’m suspecting that there was no reason at all to learn up through 12, other than because of some carryover tradition based on UK currency? Man, this is almost a Cecil-worthy question: why do (did) we have to learn the times tables up through 12? ---
**Author:** ![Notassmartasithought](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c0e974/32.png) [@Notassmartasithought](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Notassmartasithought)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2009, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-decimalized-currency/494705/47 "2009-04-30T01:48:41Z")
> [@glee](#): > > Having used UK currency all my life, I don’t agree at all. :eek: > > We had to learn our 11 and 12 times tables at school, purely to cope with the currency. > > When 12 pennies (d) made a shilling (12d) and 20 shillings (s) made a pound you were constantly multiplying by 12, or doing other timewasting calculations: > “It costs 5s 3p. I’ve got 7s 2p, so if I buy it I will have 1s 11p change.” > > I have handled a farthing (0.25d), a halfpenny (0.5d), a threepenny bit (3p), a sixpence (6d), a shilling (1s) a half-crown (2.5s) and a guinea (£1 1s). > (I don’t remember florins (2s) or crowns (5s), but there you go.) > > So you have a pocket full of coins: > > 5 half-crowns > 3 shilling > 7 sixpences > 1 threepenny bit > 2 halfpennies > 6 farthings > > Can you afford to buy something worth £1 4s 7p? :rolleyes: > If so, how much change will you have? :smack: One of the pithiest posts I’ve ever seen. Thanks Glee. ---
**Author:** ![amarone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@amarone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarone)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2009, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-decimalized-currency/494705/48 "2009-04-30T01:55:01Z")
> [@Balthisar](#): > > Now I’m suspecting that there was no reason at all to learn up through 12, other than because of some carryover tradition based on UK currency? Or inches in a foot. Or anything involving dozens, e.g. most elementary school kids need to work out how many bottles of wine in x cases. ---
**Author:** ![amarone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@amarone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarone)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2009, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-decimalized-currency/494705/49 "2009-04-30T01:56:45Z")
> [@Mk\_VII](#): > > The arguments in favour of ‘easier reckoning’ disappeared anyway when calculators came along to do the number-crunching for you. Hardly. It is still relevant to want to have a currency where you do not need a calculator. Who takes a calculator to the store with them? ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2009, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-decimalized-currency/494705/50 "2009-04-30T03:23:10Z")
Does any country _not_ use decimal currency today? I vaguely remember reading something abount Myanmar/Burma have a base 9 currency. ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2009, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-decimalized-currency/494705/51 "2009-04-30T03:38:31Z")
> [@alphaboi867](#): > > Does any country _not_ use decimal currency today? I vaguely remember reading something abount Myanmar/Burma have a base 9 currency. Nope. 1 kyat = 100 pya, at least today. I actually remembered that the Saudi rial was 20 of its smaller unit at one time. It’s 100 hallallah today. Wiki has a list (of course): > **[List of circulating currencies](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_circulating_currencies)** > > There are 180 currencies recognized as legal tender in United Nations (UN) member states, UN General Assembly non-member observer states, partially recognized or unrecognized states, and their dependencies. However, excluding the pegged (fixed exchange rate) currencies, there are only 130 currencies that are independent or pegged to a currency basket. > A currency is a kind of money and medium of exchange. Currency includes paper, cotton, or polymer banknotes and metal coins. States generally hav... Madagascar and Mauritania have a unit of currency divided into 5 of the smaller unit, and one of the articles mentions that they are the only two non-decimal currencies today. I think you’ll find that a lot of countries used to have smaller denominations that weren’t powers of ten. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2009, 8:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-decimalized-currency/494705/52 "2009-04-30T08:15:53Z")
> [@amarone](#): > > Or inches in a foot. Or anything involving dozens, e.g. most elementary school kids need to work out how many bottles of wine in x cases. For when they go to the liquor store? My understanding is that memorizing up to 12x12 is a holdover/downgrading from earlier generations having to memorize up to 15x15 or even 20x20. Nowadays, there are too many other things to teach, so they don’t waste time with that. ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2009, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-decimalized-currency/494705/53 "2009-04-30T11:45:34Z")
> [@amarone](#): > > Or inches in a foot. Or anything involving dozens, e.g. most elementary school kids need to work out how many bottles of wine in x cases. ## But they can, as you say, work it out without rote memorization. 12 x 8 96 ---
**Author:** ![amarone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@amarone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarone)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2009, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-decimalized-currency/494705/54 "2009-04-30T11:58:07Z")
> [@Balthisar](#): > > ## But they can, as you say, work it out without rote memorization. 12 x 8 > > 96 Indeed, but I was just addressing the comment as to whether learning 12x tables was because of UK currency by giving other examples of base 12 usage. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2009, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-decimalized-currency/494705/55 "2009-04-30T12:22:42Z")
> [@alphaboi867](#): > > Does any country _not_ use decimal currency today? I vaguely remember reading something abount Myanmar/Burma have a base 9 currency. You may be vaguely remembering the fact that in the 1980s, Burma briefly had [15, 35 and 75 kyat banknotes.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myanma_kyat#Third_kyat_2) ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2009, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-decimalized-currency/494705/56 "2009-04-30T13:19:27Z")
> [@Desert\_Nomad](#): > > Without even thinking about it: Turkey, Zimbabwe, Russia and Turkmenistan all within the last 10 years or so. You can add in Azerbaijan (5000:1) and Poland (1000:1) to the list. ---
**Author:** ![BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bcef8e/32.png) [@BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2009, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-decimalized-currency/494705/57 "2009-04-30T13:39:45Z")
> [@acsenray](#): > > up until the changeover to the euro, it was still common in certain circumstances for large sums to be stated in old francs. I dunno how “common” it was, but when I was in Paris in '08, receipts at some restaurants I went to had the total in both euro and franc (I believe the more recent franc, however). > [@alphaboi867](#): > > Does any country _not_ use decimal currency today? I vaguely remember reading something abount Myanmar/Burma have a base 9 currency. Do you mean not use base 10, or not use decimal points? If the latter, then people have already mentioned the S Korean won and the Japanese yen. In Japan, they use [long scale](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_and_short_scales) counting, meaning they have new number names at 10,000 and at 100,000,000, rather than at 1,000,000 and 1,000,000,000. That is to say, after one, ten, hundred and thousand, they have a new word for ten-thousand. They then count up to 1000 ten-thousands before giving a new name to what we call hundred-million. The yen is roughly equivalent to a US penny, so the ex-pats here just think of a hundred yen as a buck. They even have hundred-yen shops 🙂 ---
**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:** [April 30, 2009, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-decimalized-currency/494705/58 "2009-04-30T14:50:33Z")
> [@Askance](#): > > But calculators work in decimals too. You’d want a specialised currency one to work out, say, 17% VAT of a pound. In areas that use feet and inches, you can get specialized construction calculators that handle yards, feet, inches, and fractions of an inch. They also handle slopes and such, as calculating roof lengths. I almost bought one at the hardware store yesterday, but it was a little expensive; it cost around $84-13/16. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2009, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-decimalized-currency/494705/59 "2009-04-30T15:07:47Z")
> [@alphaboi867](#): > > Does any country _not_ use decimal currency today? I vaguely remember reading something abount Myanmar/Burma have a base 9 currency. In Mauritania, [5 khoums make 1 ouguiya](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mauritanian_ouguiya) In Madagascar, [5 iraimbilanjas make 1 ariary](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ariary) Last time I was there, there were 1000 Mils in a Tunisian Dinar. ---
**Author:** ![Mk\_VII](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Mk\_VII](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mk_VII)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2009, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-decimalized-currency/494705/60 "2009-04-30T19:45:06Z")
In India they used to learn the 16 times table because there were sixteen annas to the rupee (don’t know if they still do). In my father’s office in the 1970s they had an Indian engineer and neighbouring colleagues would often ask him “what’s fourteen sixteens?” or some such, in the days before desk calculators became common. They had mechanical adding machines in the accounts dept which would up and subtract in £.s.d. (possibly even multiply, hard to remember) There was nothing particularly hard about £.s.d. accounting, like most things, if you’d never known any different you just accepted that that was the way things were and got on with it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-decimalized-currency/494705.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-decimalized-currency/494705.md?page=4)