Britain's Pre-Decimal Coinage

[lpetrich]

On  Decimal Day, 15 February 1971, Britain introduced a new division of its unit of currency, the pound sterling. In it, the penny changed from 1/240 pound to 1/100 pound, and intermediate values were changed to decimal-style multiples of pence: 2, 5, 10, 20, and 50, much as Britain's rebellious North American colonies had done nearly two centuries before.

Pre-decimal money quantities were usually given as pounds - shillings - pence.

The decimal-currency penny was 2.4 times the old penny, and a new-penny half-penny coin was issued for a while to help ease the transition.

 Coins of the pound sterling,  List of British banknotes and coins
Pre-decimal coins – What do you know about farthings, florins and groats?
Pre-decimal currency in Britain (before 1971)

From this table, one can easily discern a preference for multiples and reciprocal multiples, and also for powers of 2. I counted these prime factors in all its numbers: {{1, 112}, {2, 316}, {3, 92}, {5, 56}, {7, 24}}. The 1's are from numerators or denominators being 1. Doing this on every possible pairing of coin gives {{1, 744}, {2, 2414}, {3, 778}, {5, 490}, {7, 288}}. The 7's come from the guineas, and omitting them gives {{1, 96}, {2, 266}, {3, 60}, {5, 48}} for this table, and {{1, 546}, {2, 1702}, {3, 404}, {5, 344}} for all possible coin combinations.

Coin	Farthing	Penny	Shilling	Pound
Mite	1/6	1/24	1/288	1/5760
Quarter farthing	1/4	1/16	1/192	1/3840
Third farthing	1/3	1/12	1/144	1/2880
Half farthing	1/2	1/8	1/96	1/1920
Farthing	1	1/4	1/48	1/960
Halfpenny	2	1/2	1/24	1/480
Three farthings	3	3/4	1/16	1/320
Penny	4	1	1/12	1/240
Three halfpence	6	1 1/2	1/8	1/160
Twopence, half-groat	8	2	1/6	1/120
Threepence	12	3	1/4	1/80
Groat	16	4	1/3	1/60
Sixpence	24	6	1/2	1/40
Shilling	48	12	1	1/20
Florin	96	24	2	1/10
Half-crown	120	30	2 1/2	1/8
Double florin	192	48	4	1/5
Crown	240	60	5	1/4
Quarter guinea	252	63	5 1/4	21/80
Third guinea	336	84	7	7/20
Halfpound, half sovereign	480	120	10	1/2
Half guinea	504	126	10 1/2	21/40
Pound, sovereign, unite, laurel	960	240	20	1
Guinea	1008	252	21	21/20
Two pounds	1920	480	40	2
Two guineas	2016	504	42	21/10
Fifty shillings	2400	600	50	5/2
Triple unite	2880	720	60	3
Five pounds	4800	1200	100	5
Five guineas	5040	1260	105	21/4

 

[Derec]

Wait, a guinea is only worth 5% more than a pound? What's the point of even introducing it?

And while "mite" may seem like a useless coin, if "Pound Sterling" was still worth the same as a pound of silver, a mite would be worth the same as ~4 US cents. Not bad.

 

[lpetrich]

The  Guinea (coin) was gold and the  Pound sterling silver. The guinea was equal in value to the pound when it was introduced in 1663. But the prices of these precious metals fluctuated relative to each other, and in 1717, the guinea was set equal to 21 shillings, alongside the pound's 20 shillings. The guinea was officially dropped in 1816, but some items continued to be priced in guineas.

Even after the guinea coin ceased to circulate, the name guinea was long used to indicate the amount of 21 shillings (£1.05 in decimalised currency). The guinea had an aristocratic overtone, so professional fees, or prices of land, horses, art, bespoke tailoring, furniture, white goods and other "luxury" items were often quoted in guineas until a couple of years after decimalisation in 1971.[9] The guinea was used in a similar way in Australia until that country converted to decimal currency in 1966, after which it became worth A$2.10.

It is still quoted in the pricing and sale of livestock and racehorses at auction, at which the purchaser will pay in guineas but the seller will receive payment in an equal number of pounds. The difference (5p in each guinea) is traditionally the auctioneer's commission (which thus, effectively, amounts to 5% on top of the sales price free from commission). Many major horse races in Great Britain, Ireland, Canada, New Zealand and Australia bear names ending in "1,000 Guineas" or "2,000 Guineas", even though the nominal values of their purses today are much higher than the £1,050 or £2,100 suggested by their names.[10]

 

[4321lynx]

The above is very theoretical. In practice during and after WW II the coins were

Farthing
Half penny also known or pronounced as a Heypenny
Penny
Threepence (in silver) pronounced as Thruppence aka as a Tikki in some colonies
Threepenny bit - an octagonal coin in thick brass, commonly called An Aberdeen Half Crown
Sixpence
Shilling aka a Bob
Two shillings aka Two Bob rarely called a Florin even though that name was on the coin
Two shillings and sixpence coin aka Half-crown, Half Dollar or Two-and-a-kick
A "pure gold" Pound called a Sovereign or a Guinea but valued by its gold content and never used in practice except for hoarding gold

Notes

Ten Shilling note --- Ten Bob
Pound note aka a Quid
Five Pound note --- a Fiver

The Fiver was a large thick white paper (?parchment) note that was printed on one side only and you signed the other side before passing it on. No other trace but the signature, no phone number, address or anything, So unless people knew you they were reluctant to accept it. Never bothered me as I never owned one.

Changes ensued.
As one of my English friends said "I have seen many changes in my life and none of them was for the better". He, of course, pronounced 'better' as betteh', the way it should be pronounced.