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There are also coins called the Sovereign and Britannia, which are both legal tender, although not in general circulation. Both are minted from 24 carat gold. T
by MarcScott 4y ago
There are also coins called the Sovereign and Britannia, which are both legal tender, although not in general circulation. Both are minted from 24 carat gold. The Sovereign has a face value of 1 pound and I think the Britannia has a face value of 5. There actual value, on gold markets, is hundreds of pounds, and for a Britannia is over a thousand. Because they are legal tender, and could theoretically be used to buy a bottle of milk, they are exempt from VAT and capital gains tax, when buying or selling.
There's also enduring slang for some some values of cash, that doesn't necessarily have an accompanying bank note. A Pony for 25 pounds and a Ton for 100 is still fairly widely understood, but mostly heard these days in Guy Ritchie movies,.
- lIl-IIIl 4y agoThank you so much. I finally understand the line "I put a pony on Liverpool" from "IT Crowd".
- roter 4y agoStick a pony in me pocket I'll fetch the suitcase from the van 'Cos if you want the best ones But you don't ask questions Then brother, I'm your man - Fools & Horses Theme
- ehecatl42 4y agoI think it was the popularity of Only Fools and Horses that gave rise to a pseudo-Cockney slang common in my time as an undergrad. Degrees were ranked: - Geoff (Hurst) -- Class I -- "first" - Simon (leBonn) -- Class II:1 - Desmond (Tutu) -- Class II:2 - Douglas (Hurd) -- Class III "turd" (I matriculated '91. And not in London.)
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- MrsPeaches 4y agoOther slang terms (more commonly used in London): - “Nugget” - £1 - “Reds” - £50 (usually only used in the plural e.g. a stack of reds) - “Bill” - £100 - “Monkey” - £500 - “Grand” - £1000 - “Bag” - £1000 (from cockney “bag of sand” rhyming with “grand”)
- frobozz 4y ago£5 and its multiples: Lady, Ayrton, Commodore, Score, Pony. Sadly, I think these are dying out due to the move towards a cashless society. The most common use for any of these (for me) was to ask someone to lend me a bit of cash when I'd left my wallet at home.
- corblimeyguvnor 4y agoTranslation - more rhyming slang, although not necessarily 'cockney' Lady Godiva - 'fiver' (£5) Ayton Senna - 'tenner' (£10) - obviously a more modern idiom. I have not come accross a Commodore before so am going to guess because of where it sits in the list as £15 Score - £20 (as in three-score-years-and-10 and all that) Pony - £25 - some latin root in there - that is an old one. I don't think they are dying out, in that paying a pony is still £25 with cash or with a card.
- sbuk 4y agoCommodore - Once, twice, three times a lady...
- denton-scratch 4y agoAs in "Lend me a tenor"?
- helsinkiandrew 4y agoAnd as well as Ton and Pony there's: - "Score" - £20 - "Nicker" - £1 Or if you want to go full cockney "Deep Sea Diver" or "Lady Godiva" £5 (fiver), and "Ayrton Senna" for £10 (tenner)
- secondcoming 4y agoA 1oz Britannia has a face value of £100
- hnlmorg 4y agoGrand (£1000) is also a really common term. I think I hear that more than the mathematical term.
- martyvis 4y agoWe use "grand" ubiquitously here in Australia for $1000.
- mattpallissard 4y agoHere in America too.
- rwmj 4y ago> [sovereigns] are exempt from VAT and capital gains tax This is a weird corner of UK tax law. If you buy gold bars and sell them at a profit you have to pay tax on the gains. If you buy and sell the equivalent weight of sovereigns there is no tax to pay, because they're just currency. Buying and selling gold coins in general (like Krugerrands that were not produced by the Royal Mint) attracts tax. Then there are coins which used to be legal tender but are no longer (pre-1837 sovereigns) which have a separate exemption from tax, unless they're a "set" of such coins where there is a different limit. (Not legal advice!)
- Aperocky 4y agoBut are sovereign coins as accessible as gold? How much markup do they command?
- rwmj 4y agoAbsolutely - loads of companies (including the Royal Mint) sell them online. Prices seem to vary depending on whether the issue is collectable or not. If you're not fussed about buying something collectable but just want the best price, the mark-ups seem to be around 5% over the price of gold. Note that as well as not having to pay capital gains tax on profits, you don't pay any VAT [like a sales tax] on the sale either. This is very unusual - almost no other non-essential item is zero-rated for VAT.
- NLips 4y agoNote that legal tender != can buy milk with. Legal tender is only about payment of debt. A shop selling you something doesn’t have to accept any specific form of payment, as they don’t let you build up a tab which needs repaying.
- LBJsPNS 4y agoWere I a shopkeeper and someone offered me a £1 Sovereign for £1 worth of merchandise, I don't think I would have any trouble accepting it.
- freeone3000 4y agoThe Coinage Act of 1971 describes, in detail, which combinations of coins must be accepted for various purchase amounts.
- Symbiote 4y agoNo, it specifies amounts for legal tender. That's relevant when paying a debt, but not making a purchase in a shop.
- DonaldFisk 4y agoSome minor corrections: the sovereign is 22 carat gold, the gold Britannia (24 carat) has a face value £100, and the silver Britannia has a face value of £2.
- benj111 4y agoBob is also now another word for pounds. That might be a northern thing though.
- OnlyMortal 4y ago20 bob is a quid. Source: Yorkshuh
- benj111 4y agoI'm from Yorkshire too. I've definitely heard people referring to 5 Bob notes, which were never a (shilling) thing, although most of the time I'm not sure it matters. (It cost a few Bob. Bent as a 9 Bob note)