4 ms·

As a Yank, I don't think I'll ever fully understand British financial nomenclature. Bobs, Shillings, et. al.

by Damogran6 8y ago

hazz99 8y ago
Do you think feet, yards and inches are any easier? ;)
amaccuish 8y ago
As a Brit, I don't understand Bob and Shillings either, probably because we don't use them anymore.
Deestan 8y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shilling https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shilling
dagw 8y ago
Don't worry, most Brits don't either.
ricree 8y ago
UK currency was decimalised in 1971. Before that it was 12 pence per shilling, 20 shillings per pound. Not ideal to work with (there's a reason they switched), but still pretty straightforward.
tom_ 8y ago
These are all to do with the pre-decimal currency, which was replaced in 1971: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C2%A3sd https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C2%A3sd The only term still in general use seems to be 'quid'.
pure-awesome 8y ago
I mean, I don't think most current British citizens understand that nomenclature. It's just not in use anymore. Now it's pounds and pence which work very much like dollars and cents. 100 pennies to the pound. The biggest difference now is probably that Americans have cents, nickels, dimes, and quarters, where the British have pennies, two-pennies / two p (sometimes, but rarely these days, called tuppence), five p, ten p, twenty p, and fifty p. To me that's easier to keep track of than remembering which one's the nickel and which is the dime.
pjc50 8y ago
“NOTE FOR YOUNG PEOPLE AND AMERICANS: One shilling = Five Pee. It helps to understand the antique finances of the Witchfinder Army if you know the original British monetary system: Two Farthings = One Ha’penny. Two ha’pennies = One Penny. Three Pennies = A Thrupenny Bit. Two Thrupences = A Sixpence. Two Sixpences = One Shilling, or Bob. Two Bob = A Florin. One Florin and One Sixpence = Half a Crown. Four Half Crowns = Ten Bob Note. Two Ten Bob Notes = One Pound (or 240 pennies). One Pound and One Shilling = One Guinea. The British resisted decimalised currency for a long time because they thought it was too complicated.” -- Good Omens, Pratchett & Gaiman
- tom_ 8y ago
  The interesting part to me is that currency is indivisible past a certain point, so it actually makes sense to have something with more factors! Compare to distance or mass units, for example, where the sub-units are irrelevant. No problem having a distance of 1/7 foot, say, even though a foot has 12 inches in it. £(1/7), on the other hand, is impossible. Since the divisibility argument is often trotted in defence of continued use of non-metric measurement systems, it seems odd it's more rarely used to defend non-decimal currencies, where it might actually be useful. Though the fact nobody uses meaningfully-non-decimal currencies any more is some evidence for arguing that this just isn't as useful as the convenience of the easy decimal numbers. Still, however many currency sub-units you have, inflation makes the issue less pressing over time.

As a Yank, I don't think I'll ever fully understand British financial nomenclature. Bobs, Shillings, et. al.

hazz99 8y ago

Do you think feet, yards and inches are any easier? ;)

amaccuish 8y ago

As a Brit, I don't understand Bob and Shillings either, probably because we don't use them anymore.

Deestan 8y ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shilling https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shilling

dagw 8y ago

Don't worry, most Brits don't either.

ricree 8y ago

UK currency was decimalised in 1971. Before that it was 12 pence per shilling, 20 shillings per pound. Not ideal to work with (there's a reason they switched), but still pretty straightforward.

tom_ 8y ago

These are all to do with the pre-decimal currency, which was replaced in 1971: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C2%A3sd https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C2%A3sd The only term still in general use seems to be 'quid'.

pure-awesome 8y ago

I mean, I don't think most current British citizens understand that nomenclature. It's just not in use anymore. Now it's pounds and pence which work very much like dollars and cents. 100 pennies to the pound. The biggest difference now is probably that Americans have cents, nickels, dimes, and quarters, where the British have pennies, two-pennies / two p (sometimes, but rarely these days, called tuppence), five p, ten p, twenty p, and fifty p. To me that's easier to keep track of than remembering which one's the nickel and which is the dime.

pjc50 8y ago

“NOTE FOR YOUNG PEOPLE AND AMERICANS: One shilling = Five Pee. It helps to understand the antique finances of the Witchfinder Army if you know the original British monetary system: Two Farthings = One Ha’penny. Two ha’pennies = One Penny. Three Pennies = A Thrupenny Bit. Two Thrupences = A Sixpence. Two Sixpences = One Shilling, or Bob. Two Bob = A Florin. One Florin and One Sixpence = Half a Crown. Four Half Crowns = Ten Bob Note. Two Ten Bob Notes = One Pound (or 240 pennies). One Pound and One Shilling = One Guinea. The British resisted decimalised currency for a long time because they thought it was too complicated.” -- Good Omens, Pratchett & Gaiman

tom_ 8y ago
The interesting part to me is that currency is indivisible past a certain point, so it actually makes sense to have something with more factors! Compare to distance or mass units, for example, where the sub-units are irrelevant. No problem having a distance of 1/7 foot, say, even though a foot has 12 inches in it. £(1/7), on the other hand, is impossible. Since the divisibility argument is often trotted in defence of continued use of non-metric measurement systems, it seems odd it's more rarely used to defend non-decimal currencies, where it might actually be useful. Though the fact nobody uses meaningfully-non-decimal currencies any more is some evidence for arguing that this just isn't as useful as the convenience of the easy decimal numbers. Still, however many currency sub-units you have, inflation makes the issue less pressing over time.