Also, that the Sterling is the longest continuous use currency in the world.
If the only significance of 240 sterlings is that it weighs a pound, then it seems likely the pound would have been a pound, whatever number of sterlings it happened to be…
It used to be 240 pence to a pound, before decimalisation (when it was updated to 100p to a pound because we were no longer insane)
Like calling the numbering system base 10.
It would be base 10 regardless of the number of units
But what if I like counting by making hash marks on a stick?
Then 10 is when you need a second stick
The accounting system of dividing one pound into twenty shillings, a shilling into twelve pence, and a penny into four farthings was adopted[when?] from the livre carolingienne system introduced by Charlemagne to the Frankish Empire.[citation needed] The penny was abbreviated to “d”, from denarius, the Roman equivalent of the penny; the shilling to “s” from solidus (written with a long s, ſ, later evolving into a simple slash, /); and the pound to “L” (subsequently £) from Libra or Livre.[when?]
I’m out.
You’re quitting early. That’s not even half the fun of predecimal British currency. There is so much more:
Edit: Well, that didn’t work. Let me see, if I can fix it.
Edit2: or maybe it did? I can see the image in the browser, just not in the app. Here is the link, in case someone else can’t see it: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a4/British_predecimal_currency.svg
My brain hurts.
Sorry sir all I’ve got is 3 groat
The joke about wizard money at the start of Harry Potter makes so much more sense now.
I guess simplicity and user friendly weren’t big concerns back then.
Is metric £ not counted as a new currency? Seems like you have to go through a lot of the same efforts as you would moving to a new currency.
No, because the £ didn’t change, it was just divided up differently.
A pre-decimal £ is the same as a decimal £.
You could technically still pay in Shillings until they redesigned the 5p.
My grandparents still called them shillings sometimes, but been a long time since I’ve heard that!
I’m only old enough to remember the old 10 and 50p
I vaguely recall the decimal ha’penny. I am old.
Yeah, to be fair it wur’all fields back then, far as the eye
In Austria we also had the ‘Schilling’ before the Euro
I’m still not sure how this 2 currencies are connected - at least by name…
And supposedly the German mark got it’s name because the pound was too much for them so they made a mark at the appropriate place to make it smaller and used that instead.
