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seoulmon
Joined: 13 Nov 2003
Location: Seoul
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 Posted: Thu Oct 20, 2005 6:56 am Post subject: Can some English person please explain the shilling system.. |
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Can some English person please explain the shilling system...?
I never understood it. Doesn't it break down into a sixteens instead of tens? Why didn't anyone else in Europe end up with this system? |
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LL Moonmanhead
Joined: 21 Mar 2005
Location: yo momma
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| Posted: Thu Oct 20, 2005 7:03 am Post subject: |
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| There is this great website, think the name is google or something. Should give you an answer. |
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Hyeon Een
Joined: 24 Jun 2005
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| Posted: Thu Oct 20, 2005 4:57 pm Post subject: |
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It was pretty simple really.
A pound was worth 20 shillings.
A guinea was worth 21 shillings.
A shilling was worth 12 pence.
A crown was 5 shillings.
half-a-crown was 2 shillings and 6 pence
A florin was 2 crowns.
'"tuppence" was 2 pence
"thruppence" was 3 pence
a "tenner" was (and still is) 10 pounds
"tannar" was 6pence
A penny was 4 farthings
A ha'penny was 2 farthings
One and a half pence was pronounced "three ha'pence" which would be 1/8th of a shilling.
1.25 pence was a penny-farthing (same name as the old bicycle)
1.75 pence was penny-three farthing
The letter to designate "pound" was, obviously, "l"
The letter to designate "penny" was, obviously, "d"
The letter to designate "shilling" was, surprisingly "s"
as in 6l2s1d
or 6/2/1
Then they had to go and make things complicated with that "100 pennies in a pound" thing in 1971..
-HE |
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ilovebdt
Joined: 03 Jun 2005
Location: Nr Seoul
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| Posted: Thu Oct 20, 2005 5:24 pm Post subject: |
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Not planning a trip to the UK are you? We now use the Pound and we also no longer drive around in horse in buggies. We have cars.  |
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Moldy Rutabaga
Joined: 01 Jul 2003
Location: Ansan, Korea
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| Posted: Thu Oct 20, 2005 5:48 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
The letter to designate "pound" was, obviously, "l"
The letter to designate "penny" was, obviously, "d" |
For Latin Libra and Greek Denarius.
This shilling-tuppence system is long gone in England, but it's worth it to try to understand it if you read Charles Di*kens or Andy Capp..
Ken:>
Last edited by Moldy Rutabaga on Thu Oct 20, 2005 6:41 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Wangja
Joined: 17 May 2004
Location: Seoul, Yongsan
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| Posted: Thu Oct 20, 2005 6:11 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
A crown was 5 shillings.
half-a-crown was 2 shillings and 6 pence
A florin was 2 crowns. |
A florin was two shillngs. It is a Dutch word (the symbol for the Dutch giulder - aka florin - was fl) and it was introduced as a first step towards decimalising the currency around 1900: A tenth of a pound (20/-) was 2 shillings (2/-) and at that time there were around 10 guilders (florins) to the pound, so it was called a florin.
Worth noting too that the slang for shilling was "bob" hence, "a bob" or "two bob". Often, the pounds would be omitted and prices reckoned just in shillings ... like thirty bob for 1 pound 10 shillings.
And, a crown was sometimes called a "dollar" and a sixpence is a "tanner".
The term guineas is still used: a gentleman, detesting demeaning talk of money, will often use guineas when selling as a last ditch squeeze for 5%. Most horse race prizes are still expressed in guineas. |
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Swiss James
Joined: 26 Nov 2003
Location: Shanghai
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| Posted: Thu Oct 20, 2005 6:31 pm Post subject: |
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| it's incredible that when we had this system, Brittania ruled the waves. You'd think the nation would've spent too much time working out their change to worry about running India |
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tzechuk
Joined: 20 Dec 2004
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| Posted: Thu Oct 20, 2005 6:49 pm Post subject: |
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This brings back memories of the time(s) when my dad sat there explaining crowns, shillings, bobs and tuppence to me.
I don't think I ever quite understood him...   |
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mindmetoo
Joined: 02 Feb 2004
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| Posted: Fri Oct 21, 2005 5:15 am Post subject: |
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| Swiss James wrote: |
| it's incredible that when we had this system, Brittania ruled the waves. You'd think the nation would've spent too much time working out their change to worry about running India |
During WWII the bizarre system had the advantage of smoking out German spies. Anyone making some obvious mistakes was suspect.
It's a bit like a few months back when there was that Immigration spook claiming he was a native ESL teacher. His English was quite good but he kept making typical Korean mistakes like "more good" versus "better". |
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dbee
Joined: 29 Dec 2004
Location: korea
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| Posted: Sat Oct 22, 2005 4:33 am Post subject: |
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| Which immigration spook was that exactly ??? |
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seoulmon
Joined: 13 Nov 2003
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Sun Oct 23, 2005 12:23 am Post subject: |
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I remember when I was living in England back in 1989. They had all this wack cool money. There were big huge coins from 1900 that were worth just 10 cents. Last I heard, they eliminated all the odd bits of change, and now everything is quite mundane.
Pity.
American money, whilst not as cool, has some interesting things. For instance, quarters and dimes before 1965 and made of silver. Because they look identical to regualr quarters you still find them in your change ever so often. |
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Privateer
Joined: 31 Aug 2005
Location: Easy Street.
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| Posted: Sun Oct 23, 2005 1:55 am Post subject: |
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For anyone who's interested this site seems pretty thorough.
Anyone born after around 1967 time-travelling back to the war would most likely get shot as a spy before long. |
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