As intended, some of those references went right past this Yank. [As a Southerner, calling me a 'Yankee' is plus ungood. Them wuz t'other side of th' Woah of No'the'n Aggression - also known as "The Recent Unpleasantness With the North."] On the other hand, is £ a typo, or have your currency designations changed?
- and you might as well switch to the euro; you guys lost all the charm of your system in 1971.
Prior to decimalisation, the pound was divided into twenty shillings, with each shilling equal to twelve pence, making a total of 240 pence to the pound. The symbol for the shilling was "s" — not from the first letter of the word, but rather from the Latin word solidus. The symbol for the penny was "d", from the French word denier (sum of money), which in turn was from the Latin word denarius (the solidus and denarius were Roman coins). A mixed sum of shillings and pence such as "two shillings and six pence" would be written as "2/6" or "2s 6d" and spoken as "two and six". Five shillings would be written as "5s" or, more commonly, "5/-". At the time of decimalisation, the smallest unit was the penny, although smaller value coins had been minted in years past...
I like baroque, oddly related coinage. Cruciform coins and brass coins the size of salad plates - why not? Gives life a piquant savor.
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timeasmymeasure
Okay.
Date: 2006-09-08 03:36 am (UTC)As intended, some of those references went right past this Yank. [As a Southerner, calling me a 'Yankee' is plus ungood. Them wuz t'other side of th' Woah of No'the'n Aggression - also known as "The Recent Unpleasantness With the North."] On the other hand, is £ a typo, or have your currency designations changed?
- and you might as well switch to the euro; you guys lost all the charm of your system in 1971.
I like baroque, oddly related coinage. Cruciform coins and brass coins the size of salad plates - why not? Gives life a piquant savor.