Why 240 pence in a pound

The cupro-nickel 'silver' coins have very little collector value today unless they are rare and in uncirculated condition. Gold coins are always valuable because of the value of gold. It may be worth much more to a collector because of rarity and condition. Before Britain went decimal in , the oldest legal tender coins were silver half crowns, shillings and sixpences from George III's reign.

The shilling remained legal tender until Pennies, halfpennies and farthings from were the oldest bronze coins still legal before The advantage of the system over decimal was that it was easy to divide. You could divide a pound into:. Many countries in the British Commonwealth and former Empire used the pounds, shillings and pence system at some point in the past. The Republic of Ireland also used pounds shillings and pence until The shilling lives on as the official currency of some African nations.

Kenya, Somalia, Somaliland, Tanzania and Uganda all use the shilling. The Kenyan shilling is divided into cents, but no coins are minted today for amounts below 1 shilling. If you want to buy a set of 'old money', the best way is to buy a complete set from a specific year. They can make great birthday present, especially if you can find a set dating from the year the person was born.

They are not as expensive as you might think. Look for:. From , to be ready for decimalisation , the Royal Mint started to mint decimal coins. The Mint started with coins denominated in 'New Pence' of values five and ten. They worked with the old system as they were direct replacements for the one and two shilling pieces.

In those days today's pence were 'new pence'. I have a 1 pound UK Bill and a shilling bill when I was wondering where I could get rid of them and how much they are worth. Hi Steven. What did the net refer to?

This is a really good question. It does not refer to tax or VAT and is not related to pounds, shillings and pence. It refers to the Net Book Agreement. Publishers fixed the price and retailers had to sell the book for that price.

There were no discounts. The agreement came to an end in the s. Cookies are small data files used to remember information about a user. For example, we use cookies to remember your cookie choices. Home Pounds, shillings and pence Introduction Old money in the UK - pounds, shillings and pence an introduction British people who are old enough will remember that there used to be pounds, shilling and pence, not just pounds and pence. What were the old British coins?

Old money v new money How did you write amounts in pounds, shillings and pence? Amounts in shillings How much did things cost in old money? Old money slang When did Britain stop using pounds, shillings and pence? How much is old money worth in today's money? How did the old money work? There were 12 pence in a shilling and 20 shillings in a pound. That made pence in a pound. The old money system was based on the pound, the shilling and the penny.

Images not to scale How did you write amounts in pounds, shillings and pence? The one shilling symbol on a coin. This not a British coin. It was issued by the Bank of Somaliland in How did people say amounts in pounds, shillings and pence?

What were the names of the old British coins? Penny 1d. Threepence 3d. Sixpence 6d. Add Comment. Powered by Commentics. Please enter at least one item. One penny was divided into two halfpennies, or four farthings. There were therefore pennies in a pound. Browser does not support script. Get social Connect with the University of Nottingham through social media and our blogs. Both come from the Latin word 'libra', meaning 'pound'.

Shillings were usually abbreviated to 's'. The 's' stands for 'sesterius' or 'solidos', coins used by the Romans. Pennies were, confusingly, abbreviated to 'd'. This is because the Latin word for this coin was 'denarius'.

Farthings were abbreviated to 'qua', short for 'quandrans', or a quarter of a penny. The word 'farthing' is an old English word meaning 'a fourth-thing'. Three pennies. More about British Currency.

Back to money used in England today. You may not redistribute, sell or place the content of this page on any other website or blog without written permission from the Mandy Barrow.

Mandy is the creator of the Woodlands Resources section of the Woodlands Junior website. The two websites projectbritain. She now teaches computers at The Granville School and St. John's Primary School in Sevenoaks Kent. Follow Mandy on Twitter. Woodlands Junior Homework Help new website. It was based on the troy system of weighing precious metals.

The penny was literally one pennyweight of silver. A pound sterling thus weighed pennyweights, or a pound of sterling silver. It became a silver coin in under his son Edward VI. Convert old money to todays "I was born in The money used in our village was:- farthing , Ha'penny , penny , thrupenny bit , sixpence , shilling , two bob bit , half crown , ten bob note , pound note and five pound note.