Hey Brits!

[Wanker]

I've never understood how someone gets knighted. What is the award for a knighthood? OBE? CBE? Who decides who gets these awards?

Can someone give me a run down, from highest order to lowest, for both men and women, please?


Could someone also please give me a run down on British currency, starting with the pound and going down to the smallest coin denomination?

Just trying to get myself educated.

[Vulcan]

Please get your terminology right, its POMMIES, or POMS for short.

[Lazerus]

Originally posted by banana

Could someone also please give me a run down on British currency, starting with the pound and going down to the smallest coin denomination?

Just trying to get myself educated.

That would be nice for a lot of us actually. Any takers???

[Flossy]

Originally posted by banana
Could someone also please give me a run down on British currency, starting with the pound and going down to the smallest coin denomination?

Sorry, can't help with the knighthood stuff - the Queen I think decides, but could be wrong.  Never really taken a great deal of interest in that stuff.  

Currency is easier:

1 pound (100 pence)
50p (50 pence)
20p (20 pence)
10p (10 pence)
5p (5 pence)
2p (2 pence)
1p (1 penny)

[beet1e]

There's also a £2 coin, banana, although you did just ask for the £1 and lower coins.

Knighthoods: http://www.churchill-society-london.org.uk/HnrSystm.html

You can do your own Google search on English Honours system. Knighthoods and other awards are known by the slang term "Gong" - generally used where the person hasn't really earned the award, but just happens to be well connected etc... Gongs are handed out in the New Year Honours List and again in the Queen's Birthday Honours List in June.

[Engine]

So is quid just slang for a pound?

[Joc]

Yep,of which I dont have many of at the moment...

[Wanker]

What about the schilling? Is that long gone?

[Wanker]

Originally posted by Flossy
Sorry, can't help with the knighthood stuff - the Queen I think decides, but could be wrong.  Never really taken a great deal of interest in that stuff.  

Currency is easier:

1 pound (100 pence)
50p (50 pence)
20p (20 pence)
10p (10 pence)
5p (5 pence)
2p (2 pence)
1p (1 penny)

Flossy

Isn't there a name for all those coins? I mean, are they really just called "50p" and "10p", etc?

We yanks have dimes, nickels, quarters.....

Don't they call the coins something similar?

How much is a guinea? Does it even exist anymore?

[Swoop]

We havn't used these in 32 years:

Sovereign = 10 pounds
Guinea  = 21 shillings
pound = 20 shillings
Crown  =   5 shillings *
half a crown    =   2 shillings & sixpence
shilling = 12p
sixpence = take a wild guess
Groat = 4p
thrupence = 3p
tuppence = 2p
Penny = 1 p
Ha'penny = 0.5 pence  (pronounced  "Hape-ny")
Farthing   =  0.25 pence

*Some time in the 1800s some king decided the Crown was to be known as the Dollar instead.  Queen Vicky must have changed it back again.

And there's more.  Have a look here for all British coins ever used.

After decimalisation we've got 1s, 2s, 5s, 10s, 20s, 50s, etc. No names anymore.

However.....

A bob = 1 shilling
A Grand = 1000 pounds
A monkey = 500 pounds
A Pony = 50 pounds
A Tanner = sixpence
A Tenner = 10 pounds
A Score = 20 pounds
A Ton / A Century = 100 pounds
A spanner = 50p



Oh and look here for stuff on knighthood.




Edit:  Dowd's right.

[cpxxx]

banana, I don't think there ever developed nicknames for the pound post decimalisation in 1971.  But there were nicknames in the old L S D money as listed in Swoop's post. No, I don't know what L S D means. Nicknames for the old money were bob = shilling, tanner = sixpence, thrupenny bit = threepence.  Quid stayed as the nickname for the pound.

Curiously here in Ireland quid is still used as the nickname for the Euro. I'm on my third currency change now. L S D to Decimal Sterling in 1971, then split from Sterling to the Irish pound or Punt in 1979 and now Euro.

What next?

[Dowding]

Swoop made a typo:

£500 = monkey

But yeah, we don't have nicknames for coins anymore.

[Swoop]

Oh and:

LSD:  L for Librae, S for Solidi, D for Denarii.

L = Pounds
S = Shillings
D = Pence

[beet1e]

Originally posted by cpxxx
No, I don't know what L S D means.  

LSD was an abbreviation for Pounds, shillings and pence. Old Pence (pre-1971) were written with the letter d after them, eg 7d = 7 old pence. In swoop's list above, he has used p instead of d, but p is for new pence - 1971 onwards.

banana asks about schillings. The schilling is actually the old unit of currency in Austria and, coincidentally was worth about 5p or one old English shilling, which was 12d.

Swoop, I don't recall any tuppence piece in the old currency. The smallest coins were the 3d piece (a twelve sided job), the 1d - penny - and the ha'penny - ½d. The farthing (¼d) predates me by a few years. The groat (4d) predated me by some 150 years...

cpxxx - were you around when all coinage was resized? That was effectively another currency change. All the coins were made slimmer, smaller - so that we wouldn't all get hernias carrying them around.

The 20p piece makes a good tyre tread depth gauge. The inner part of the coin which depicts the Queen's head is slightly recessed by a raised surround. The recessed area starts exactly 3mm from the edge of the coin. Stick a 20p into your tyre treads, and if the raised surround does not completely disappear, your tread is less than 3mm - time to think about replacing the tyre before long. (legal limit 1.6mm)

[ra]

Sovereign = 10 pounds
Guinea  = 21 shillings
pound = 20 shillings
Crown  =   5 shillings *
half a crown    =   2 shillings & sixpence
shilling = 12p
sixpence = take a wild guess
Groat = 4p
thrupence = 3p
tuppence = 2p
Penny = 1 p
Ha'penny = 0.5 pence  (pronounced  "Hape-ny")
Farthing   =  0.25 pence

So how many groats in half a shilling?