British money questions

[TMC]

In reading Sherlock Holmes, I have come across no less than seven different types of British currency. Can anyone explain their value and how they are related to each other?

I have read of pounds, pence, quid, shillings, guineas, crowns, and sovereigns.

 

[Ell]

Explanation of British coinage

Here's a site that explains British Denominations and how they relate to each other.

 

[Darren]

Those are old, historical denominations.

Now we have a decimal system consiting of pounds and pence (similar to dollars and cents).

"Quid" is slang for "pound" so ten quid = £10

There are lots of other slang terms for quantities of money, particuarly used in London eg "a monkey" Have a look here for some more slang money terms (I haven't heard of half of those though).

Most of Europe has now gone to "euros" and "cents", but that's another story...

 

[Ell]

Thanks for the link, Darren.

Gave me my laugh for the day. Love Brit humour!

Poorly fish = six quid (sick squid) .... still chuckling over that one.

But back to TMC's question, the old terms should apply to what he's reading (ie. Sherlock Holmes)?

Ell

 

[Darren]

Glad you liked the link. I've never heard of most of them, but I'm not a Cockney so I've never really understand the rhyming slang.

Britain changed to its current decimalisation system in 1971, so the old system would be used by Sherlock Holmes.

 

[lies]

A bit off-topic, but: How would you Brits feel about changing to euros?

 

[TMC]

Thanks for the link, Ell. That site cleared things up.

 

[phil_t]

I think the majority of public opinion would be against changing to Euros (i certainly am), but it doesnt look like our Chancellor is going to give us much of a choice at this rate - the change looks fairly inevitable, i'd say by 2010 we'll have Euros rather than Pounds

 

[murphyz]

I have no real problems changing to the Euro as it means I won't have to change currencies when travelling to other parts of Europe, and my pay packet would look a heck of a lot more the first time I got paid. It would make parts of my job slightly easier too - but only because I'm too lazy to look up exchange rates.

Mxx

 

[phil_t]

Originally posted by murphyz
my pay packet would look a heck of a lot more the first time I got paid

LOL, yeah i suppose there is that!

 

[Martin]

For me it was the other way around. I live in Holland, so the Euro was introduced here at the beginning of 2002. Considering the fact that 1 Euro is equal to 2.2 Dutch Guilders, my pay packet took quite a beating, being even less than half of what it was before the change.

Oh, and Murphyz, don't let your government fool you. Businesses will use the switch from Pounds to Euro's to make their products more expensive. Trust me. If the UK decides to switch to the Euro, living will get a lot more expensive.

Cheers, Martin

 

[blurbb]

I wonder if you've also read of halfpennies and farthings, TMC. There's also half-crowns. It's confusing to us, and is was our currency.