Originally posted by Eine Alpensinfonie
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Ah…those were the days.
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Or even £2 13/- (I rather think I was actually taught £2 13/=).
Ah…those were the days.
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did d stand for denarii ? - I've forgotten
.... and how did we write tuppence three-farthing ?Comment
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Funny you should pick an amount which is directly Googleable:Originally posted by mercia View Post
2¾dComment
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Let us not forget that other sterling denomination, the Guinea (21/-). This was usually reserved for expensive items, partly for show, and partly to disguise the price (a bit like the way 19/11 was used distract from the fact one was effectively paying £1.Comment
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LSD (in the monetary sense) was librae, solidi, denarii. The s was only coincidentally the correct initial for shilling.
The pound sterling derived from the same Latin word as the pound weight - hence the abbreviation lb.Comment
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Thank goodness that all that absurdly unnecessary complexity has long since given up the dust and bitten the ghost! The amount of time it took to get anywhere near the present system was, however, embarrassingly lengthy - see http://www.coins-of-the-uk.co.uk/florn.html (in which URL the word "florin" is for some reason or none mis-spelt - well, this is the pedantry section!) under The Florin where its it noted that
"In 1847 a proposal was put forward for decimalisation of the pound, with the introduction of coins worth a tenth and a hundredth of a pound. As a consequence a tenth of a pound coin was introduced to test public opinion.
The first coin, issued in 1849, was unusual in two respects. First the queen, Victoria, was portrayed wearing a crown for the first time since the reign of Charles II, and secondly because the coin omitted the Dei Gratia, or even DG in the inscription, so it became known as the Godless Florin. It's diameter was 28 mm."
(and note the grocers' apostrophe therein).
It seems to have taken almost a century and a quarter for this vastly simpler system to catch on - and complex and unwieldy indeed it was; at one time there were actually half farthings and even quarter farthings in circulation (mid-19th century) - these and farthings had been designed by one William Wyon and one cannot help but wonder Wyon earth he did, or was asked to do, such things, especially given that there were 3,840 quarter farthings to the pound.
It's surely now high time that we dispensed with the 1p, 2p and 5p coins as they've become almost as superfluous and redundant as those old farthing things!Comment
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How much is a gobstopper nowadays?Comment
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It wasn't that vastly simpler when introduced. Don't forget we had a 1/2p coin, and thus the pound was divided into 200, not 100.Originally posted by ahinton View Post
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A joke from my childhood:
Why are the North and South Poles like a ha'penny?
Because they are two far things.Comment
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No, I'd not forgotten that; nor have I forgotten that it took a further 13 years for its death knell to be sounded; in fact, I did wonder at the time whether it was introduced along with the rest of decimal currency solely s a sop to satisfy the bizarre attachments that some people still retained for imperial measures various - rather as, even today, certain imperial measures still have a pereived currency today in UK - "miles per gallon", 2.24l plastic bottles of milk being sold as 4-pint bottles and the rest and, despite metric measure having first formally been discussed in Parliament almost two centuries ago and its use now the law, some Brits still seem to love to complicate matters by "converting"...Originally posted by Don Petter View PostIt wasn't that vastly simpler when introduced. Don't forget we had a 1/2p coin, and thus the pound was divided into 200, not 100.Comment
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I wouldn't call that one a grocer's apostrophe.Originally posted by ahinton View Post
A possessive form corresponding to it was a late introduction - previously we'd made do with his (Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted?)
All the other pronominal possessive forms are different words, and don't admit of an apostrophe before the final s, which in any case most of them don't even have.
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In the timber trade, certainly until recently, when measurements went metric, tradesmen would still order, not 2 metres but 1.8m (6ft) or 2.1m (7ft) &c.Originally posted by ahinton View PostIt isn't given us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world.Comment
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Nor I, and even it it did fit the category intended, the accepted term is "greengrocer's apostrophe"Originally posted by jean View PostComment
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