• 3ntranced@lemmy.world
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    23 days ago

    Hey, American here. I watch tons of old British telly and I thought i had a good understanding of currency terms but now I’m confused. I thought a quid is just another word for a pound?

    While im here, is pence-pennies,tuppence-2 pennies, a shilling-like a dime or something,bob-just slang for pound? Plus you guys had the euro sort of wander in before brevity, it’s all so confusing.

    • feedum_sneedson@lemmy.world
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      23 days ago

      Tuppence is two pence, and nobody says it anymore. Shilling was twelve pence in old money. Farthing was a quarter penny. Ha’p’ny was a half penny. Bob was another word for a shilling. Crown was 60 pence, which was a quarter of a pound. Now we just have pounds and pence/pennies. It’s much simpler.

    • m4xie@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      23 days ago

      A shilling used to be 12 pence, and there were 20 shillings in a pound for 240 pence to the pound, before we decimalised.

      A dime is 10 cent, but that’s just the name for the coin. Shillings used to be a part of the number system which was split into three tiers, not two with a decimal place.

      Bob used to be slang for a shilling, not a pound.

      We’ve never had the euro. The Republic of Ireland uses the euro, but if you call them British you’ll get into real trouble.

    • HowManyNimons@lemmy.world
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      23 days ago

      Most of those are old-timey pre-decimal coins. You only need to know pounds (or quid) and pennies (or pence).