I studied up before a childhood trip to England! 20 shillings to a pound - after decimalisation, a shilling is 5p (5 New Pence as it was first called). Old: 12p to a shilling. There were still old sixpence coins circulating during that visit, worth 2½ new pence. I'd feared English math class… 🧵 1/2
🧵 2/2 …would be full of problems like: "Nigel has 2 crowns 1 florin sixpence ha'penny, how many sweets can he buy at shilling ninepence and a farthing for a bag of six?" Worry unfounded! But I still remember crowns, guineas, etc. Also 1 stone = 14 lb., a "hundredweight" is 8 stone = 112 lb, etc.
And you are younger than I! 🤣🤣 Yes, now I read the words, I remember. Wasn't a guinea 21 shillings? So complicated! 😅
Yes! but I'm catching up fast 😂 Why they needed a different qty for 21 vs 20 shillings I can't say. If you can view in Aus, this brilliant skit lampoons US system of measures brilliantly: www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYqf... It's prob. our favourite in recent years from Saturday Night Live.
The guinea or 21/- was a pound for the seller and a shilling for the cashier. I spent a lot of Saturday mornings in Dads butcher shop ‘doing the till’ so the meat handlers didn’t need to wash their hands after handling money. I’m only too well aware how the term ‘filthy lucre’ came about.
Wow - that goes straight into my "interesting facts" store. Thanks, Grant! And I too handled cash in a retail job in my youth, and also know from bank tellers… nothing dirtier than money. 🤢
Why I have not used cash since Covid started, although masks more important really. But cash still a risk.
@ozwiltshire.bsky.social see above!
Bloody fantastic! 😅🤣
That sketch was hilarious. And kind of shocking how clearly it speaks to a self-knowledge and reflection of the absurdity of it all that the US seems sorely lacking in general at the moment.
Oh, yes, that's right! 12 pennies to a shilling! That confused me!