Re: Slang for money [was: Re: Backup Consensus?]
On Tue 28 Jan 2003 16:13:56 +0000(+0000), Pigeon wrote:
> On Mon, Jan 27, 2003 at 07:50:12PM -0600, will trillich wrote:
> > OT: so where's the lexicon that relates quid, guinea, bob,
> > shilling, pence, pound and so forth, for the ignorant
> > north-americaner? :)
>
> OK, Just to make things more complicated British money changed around
> 1970 from 1 pound = 240 pennies from 1 pound = 100 new pennies, ie.
> the value of the pound stayed the same but the penny changed. The
> 1/240-pound sort of pennies are now called "old pennies", but of
> course they were just pennies at the time.
They were bloody big coins though.
> Quid = pound (slang)
> Pence = alternative form of Pennies
> Shilling = 12 old pennies = 5 new pennies
> Half-crown = 2/6 (2 shillings and 6 pence), 30 old pennies, 12.5 new
> pennies
> Bob = shilling (slang)
> Hapenny = half-penny (elision)
> Thruppenny bit = 3 (old) penny coin
To add my ha'p'orth (halfpennyworth), the denominations are/were abbreviated as:
p - new pence
d - old pence
s - shillings
L - pounds - £ is a stylised L
In other words our currency used to be L.s.d.
--
Cheers,
Clive
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