Puncher:

Put it this way - if you were to sponsor me Thruppence a yard, you'd get change from a Ten bob note!

?

Can anyone born before 1676 convert this into metric?

j0hnbarker:

Puncher:

Put it this way - if you were to sponsor me Thruppence a yard, you'd get change from a Ten bob note!

?

Can anyone born before 1676 convert this into metric?

 

If you have to ask, you can't afford it!

j0hnbarker:

Puncher:

Put it this way - if you were to sponsor me Thruppence a yard, you'd get change from a Ten bob note!

?

Can anyone born before 1676 convert this into metric?

 

Thruppence (or 3 old pence) would equate to about 1.5 new pence (yes we WERE robbed when we moved to decimal currencyl. I remeber a Mars bar cost a tanner (6 old pence), after decimilisation it cost 3 new pence and we only got 2.5 new pence for the old tanner so my daily sweet ration was instantly reduced to a Milky Way. A Ten bob note = 10 shiilings, or 50p in new money.

I preffered the old currency meself, it certainly improved the nations mental arithmatic.

BTW the book would cost £28 & 10 shiilings.

Chris.

I had a commemorative decimal currency set as a kid, and think my mum and dad still have it somewhere. I was too late to witness the change personally (I'm 30), but still remember fondly the old 1/2 pence coins and £1 notes. Was telling some of the youth team at the Medical School about it the other day and they thought I was taking the rise when I was recounting how packets of crisps used to cost 9 1/2 pence!

Oh well...I'm sure some of the old timers here can remember when a pint of mead cost a thruppeny groat :P

j0hnbarker:

Was telling some of the youth team at the Medical School about it the other day and they thought I was taking the rise when I was recounting how packets of crisps used to cost 9 1/2 pence!

I'd kill myself if I had to work fractional money every day! It won't take long until I can confuse the kids over here with talking about how a beer used to cost 18.50 Marks...

Honestly I think ditching those old currencies and moving to Euro was the best thing ever. Everything is so much simpler... the second best decision in Finland was to omit the smallest coins (1 and 2 cents) in daily transactions. Those worthless pieces of metal **** me off no end whenever I'm travelling and they start filling up the wallet...

My Auntie Chrissie used to send me a ten shilling note every year for my birthday. It was a mega big deal, and the only prezzie I got.
Although I had to give it to my mother for some sh1te for school (a file or cartridge pen, etc), it was a great feeling opening the envelope from Liverpool.
Then, in 1969, it became a ten bob bit (50 pence).  Not the same at all.
Is it Wednesday?   Oh no, the Jarman book!
Well priced Lee, and anyone who begrudges the extra little that goes towards tis fantastiv site (whch you and LifestyleAv subsedise (sp) regularly), need their head looking at.

Andy T.

Well, almost a quarter of the books have been sold within 48 hours!

Keep the orders coming guys, i'm sure Nick and Tim are delighted - as the buyers will be when they get the book.  Thanks to all that have placed orders so far

I used to get a half crown a week pocket money until decimalisation when I got a rise to 15p (three shillings). I kept my last half crown - here it is along with a full crown (never really used as currency though I do remember converting all my notes to crowns one year just to annoy shop keepers), a florin and a new 10p piece. 

Peter :

I used to get a half crown a week pocket money until decimalisation when I got a rise to 15p (three shillings). I kept my last half crown - here it is along with a full crown (never really used as currency though I do remember converting all my notes to crowns one year just to annoy shop keepers), a florin and a new 10p piece. 

This is great! - it should have been a Wed© Thred

When I was a lad we used to have a full day out for four Shillings! It was a Shilling each way on the bus to Durham, a Shilling into Durham baths and sixpence each for a cup of Hot Chocolate and a bar of Tom & Jerry, pink & white, Nougat when we came out! (If any here reads this and wonders if it was me who purposely dribbled Hot Chocolate onto them from the foot bridge next to the baths as they rowed on the river Wear beneath - I think enough time has elapsed that I can now safely own up)!

I love this stuff! WTF is a florin? Some of the names of the old coins and random amounts are comical: florin/tanner/bob :D

A floring was an early 2 shilling (10p in new money) coin. Many were weighed in as scrap in the 1970's as the siver content was greater than the face value making them quite collectable now.

I've also seen a few florins made into rings - done by gently tapping & turning them on the edge with a small hammer on an anvil. This rolls over the edge so that the writing around the outer of the faces finishes on the inside where it slips over your finger. The centre is then drilled out making a really unusual ring which won't turn your finger green. I actually had a go myself with some later 2 bob coins & it does work, I even made a small hand cranked machine with roller bearings which tightend onto the coin to cut out the laborious tapping with a hammer stage.

I have a couple of crown (5 shillings) coins stuck in a drawer somewhere with the Winston Churchill face on them.

Chris.

j0hnbarker:

I love this stuff! WTF is a florin? Some of the names of the old coins and random amounts are comical: florin/tanner/bob :D

Not that random really - just that there were 12 pennies to the shilling (240 to the pound), so that you had halfpenny, penny, threepenny, sixpenny, shilling, two shilling and half crown (also interestingly called half-dollars, at least in the NE) coins.

Farthings had gone before I was about and I can't remember seeing any crowns in circulation (certainly none came my way). An oddball was the Guinea, equal to One pound and a shilling!

This together, with ounces, pounds, stones etc. certainly made Arithmetic interesting in the Primary school.

The Guinea still exists as a currency - race horses are still auctioned/traded in them

Chris.

Professional fees are also usually charged in guineas. And the earliest catalogue for B&O I have had also had the prices in guineas!! The old coins were wonderful - an old penny was a substantial coin and even the farthing, which was withdrawn before I had use for it, was beautiful, with a wren on the tail side. I have a pair of cufflinks somewhere made from them. The threepenny piece was also unusual in having twelve sides.

I have a Churchill crown as well from William Deacons bank. Crowns are legal tender though are worth only 25p! Most older ones are worth more than this as a collectors item though unfortunately the Churchill one was made in such huge quantities that they are not worth much more! Crowns since 1990 have been struck with a value of £5 though one could argue that these are not actually crowns! 

Peter :

 - an old penny was a substantial coin---------------------------

I remember checking every penny I got in case it was a "legendary" 1933 coin!

Puncher:

I remember checking every penny I got in case it was a "legendary" 1933 coin!

Back in 1995, a Swedish artist (Pär Lindblom) made 10 false Swedish "10-crowns". Almost identical but instead of the signature of the head of the national Swedish bank, he placed is own signature there (PL). He saved one and used the other coins so they started to circulate.

They are made of 18 K gold!

One was discovered by a taxi driver as they are heavier then the original (10,7 g vs 6,6 g) and who sold it to the Swedish coin museum for 500 €, but the remaining 8 is still out on the market.

There is another ammount of money that wasn't a coin, but mix of two or three.
Three Ha'pence.  (Pronounced  'three ay punce') it was 1 and a half old pennies.
A farthing was quarter of a penny, and before my time there was a coin half of a farthing. I think it was called a mite.
The first decimal coin to appear, was the 50 pence, and it ran alongside old money for a year or two before we went decimal proper. We called it a ten bob bit.
If you had a shilling worth of pennies, you could hardly stand staright.
I too, had a Churchill Crown, but wrecked it by rolling it all the way to school one day. Numpty!

Andy T.

I have to admit a "farthing" doesn't make me think of currency...

Peter :

Professional fees are also usually charged in guineas. And the earliest catalogue for B&O I have had also had the prices in guineas!! The old coins were wonderful - an old penny was a substantial coin and even the farthing, which was withdrawn before I had use for it, was beautiful, with a wren on the tail side. I have a pair of cufflinks somewhere made from them. The threepenny piece was also unusual in having twelve sides.

I have a Churchill crown as well from William Deacons bank. Crowns are legal tender though are worth only 25p! Most older ones are worth more than this as a collectors item though unfortunately the Churchill one was made in such huge quantities that they are not worth much more! Crowns since 1990 have been struck with a value of £5 though one could argue that these are not actually crowns! 

All a bit off-topic but interesting! The florin (two shillings) was the start of a Victorian decimalisation that came to nothing. When the exchange rate was $4 to the pound, the crown was often called a dollar, and the half crown (two shillings and sixpence) half a dollar, and those descriptions carried on well after the exchange rate had drifted to the $2 and $2.4 pound. (In my schooldays half a crown was always called half a dollar......... but maybe that has as much to do with Liverpool's connections as being anything to do with the currency!)

Graham

vikinger:

All a bit off-topic but interesting!....

A bit off topic?!!  What started as an announcement for a Bang & Olufsen collectors guide, signed by the authors has now morphed into a full scale pre-decimal currency ramble !!

Only on BeoWorld..

Lee

9 LEE:

vikinger:

All a bit off-topic but interesting!....

A bit off topic?!!  What started as an announcement for a Bang & Olufsen collectors guide, signed by the authors has now morphed into a full scale pre-decimal currency ramble !!

Only on BeoWorld..

Lee

You obviously should have priced the books at a logical 27 guineas in the first place to accommodate all the old school  B&O antique collectors!

just ordered my copy.  can't wait to get it~  thanks in advance

9 LEE:

vikinger:

All a bit off-topic but interesting!....

 

A bit off topic?!!  What started as an announcement for a Bang & Olufsen collectors guide, signed by the authors has now morphed into a full scale pre-decimal currency ramble !!

Only on BeoWorld..

Lee

You started it - wittering on about the cost of postage!

9 LEE:

vikinger:

All a bit off-topic but interesting!....

 

A bit off topic?!! 

Lee

Got my copy today! Fantastic book!