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Message: <blockquote data-quote="dulsin" data-source="post: 1276590" data-attributes="member: 15547">If you realy want to blow peoples minds .... use the old english monitary system.Pre-decimalisation, the Pound was divided into 240 pennies rather than 100, though it was rarely expressed in this way. Rather it was expressed in terms of Pounds, Shillings and Pence, where:£1 = 20 shillings.1 shilling = 12 pence. Thus: £1 = 240 pence and a penny was further subdivided at various times, though these divisions vanished as inflation made them irrelevant:1 penny = 2 halfpennies and (earlier) 4 farthings.The standard way of writing shillings and pence is 5/6 for 5 shillings & sixpence 5/- for 5 shillings only, with the dash to stand for zero pennies. As the symbol, £, for the pound is derived from the first letter of the Latin word for pound, the libra, so the old abbreviation for the penny, d, was derived from the Roman denarius, and the abbreviation for the shilling, s, from the Roman solidus. The shilling was also denoted by the slash symbol, also called a solidus for this reason. The English penny was derived from a small silver coin minted by Charlemagne which was in general circulation in Europe during the middle ages. The weight of this coin was originally 1/240th of a troy pound, a weight known as a pennyweight - around 1.555 grams. The pre-decimalisation coins with exact decimal equivalent values continued in use after 1971 alongside the new coins, albeit with new names, (eg the shilling became the 5p coin). Some, such as the 6d, were withdrawn after a short time but others remained legal tender until they were replaced by smaller coins in the early 1990s. Pre-decimalisation shillings were used as 5ps, with many people calling the new 5p coin a shilling, since it remained 1/20 of a pound, but was now worth 5p instead of 12d. Slang Some pre-decimalisation coins became commonly known by slang terms. Perhaps the most well known being bob for a shilling, and quid for a pound. A silver threepence was a joey, a sixpence was a tanner and a half crown was a half dollar. Quid remains as popular slang for one or more pounds to this day in BritainAnd we can't forget Crowns, Gold sovereigns, Thruppence and Groats!<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_coinage#Pre-decimal_system" target="_blank">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_coinage#Pre-decimal_system</a></blockquote>

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