The Intardnet Beat Me, re: UK Currency

[SOB]

For no reason in particular, I decided to try and find out how money works in the UK.  That is to say, what denominations are used.

For example, in the US:
Penny = .01 dollars
Nickel = .05 dollars
Dime = .10 dollars
Quarter = .25 dollars
Half Dollar = (you guessed it) .50 dollars

Apparently this is the most difficult thing to find on the Intardnet EVAR.  Well, that or I'm search engine stupid.

So how about it you limey bananas, gimme the poop yer monies!

[NUKE]

yeah, you're pretty stupid...on many levels.

[Gunslinger]

EDIT:

OK it wasn't me that brought it up, but the thread did infact intrest me.
I doesnt look like a clear answer was given.

http://www.hitechcreations.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=125584&highlight=Euro

[Nashwan]

We lost all the fancy names with decimilisation in the late 60s. Someone a bit older than me could tell you what those were (sixpence, farthing, etc)

Pretty simple and basic in the UK now. The pound is split up into 100 pence, the cins come in 1, 2, 5 10, 20 and 50 pence sizes, and are simply called by their value, followed by "p", eg "fifty p", "20 p" etc.

The 1p is still called the penny though.

The rest of the coins don't have names anymore, but some people still apply the old names to the 5p (shilling) and the 2p is sometimes called tuppence.

There' a list of all the old coins (and the new ones) at http://www.24carat.co.uk/denominations.html

[Pei]

Basically 1 pound = 100 pence (pennies) abbreviated to "p"

There are coins for
2 pounds
1 pound
50p
20p
10p
5p
2p "tuppence"
1p "penny"

and notes (bills to you yanks) for

100pounds (very rare)
50 pounds (rare)
20 pounds
10 pounds ("tenner")
5 pounds ("fiver")

The term "quid" is universally used for pounds and pound (5 pound note =  5 quid). There are a number of other name sfor the individual notes floating around as well but they aren't as commonly used.

The old pre-decimal currency was much more convoluted but that disappeared before I was born so perhaps some old timer can inform you.

[Furball]

http://www.24carat.co.uk/photogalleryofcurrentbritishcoinage.html


this is quite good too, details on the special edition £2 coins

http://www.24carat.co.uk/twopoundsindx.html

[beet1e]

Originally posted by Nashwan
We lost all the fancy names with decimilisation in the late 60s. Someone a bit older than me could tell you what those were (sixpence, farthing, etc)

OK, I'll try. In the following list "d" is the abbreviation for old pence. There were 240 old pence to a pound (12d to a shilling, 20 shillings to £1).

¼d - farthing - removed from circulation before my time
½ d - ha'penny
1d - penny - can't remember it having any other name.
3d - joey - though only older people remember that name.
6d - tanner - known as such in my school days.
1 shilling - bob
2 shillings - florin (official name)
2/6 (2½ shillings) half crown (slang name = half dollar)
5 shilling - crown - not in circulation.

also 4d (very old coin - 18th/19th century) = groat.

[Chortle]

Pretty soon they'll look like this and we'll all be happy

[Furball]

bah, monopoly money.

[Saintaw]

Furby, if you ever get hold of that Monopoly money, send me the purple ones on the left. I'll send you a penny back for each.

[SunTracker]

Why is the British pound worth so much more than the dollar when the U.S. is much bigger economically?

[thrila]

Because Britain is great.  The hint is in the the name .

[Mini D]

Originally posted by SunTracker
Why is the British pound worth so much more than the dollar when the U.S. is much bigger economically?

A wild guess would be because the British had their foot in the door of the global economy before the U.S. was even a country?  I don't know of an "empire" that even came close to the British empire of the 1700-1900's.  There seems to be alot of property ownership that carried over from it.  Hell... GB is the #1 on the list of foreign country's owning property on U.S. soil.

[beet1e]

The value of unit of currency is purely arbitrary. It has nothing to do with the size of the economy in which it is used. One thing that could give that impression is where a third world country has riproaring inflation, and the currency becomes worth very little. But for example, one of the world's newest countries, the Euro, was created equal to around $1. It could just as easily have been set at $2 or $5 when created, in 2002.

[Thrawn]

Originally posted by SunTracker
Why is the British pound worth so much more than the dollar when the U.S. is much bigger economically?

Country US has an enconomic value of 100.

Country US has 100 unit of currency to represent it's economic value.

Each unit of it's currency has a value of 1.



Country GB has an economic value of 10.

Country GB has 5 units of currency to represent it's economic value.

Each peice of currency is valued at 2.




The US might have bigger economy thatn GB, but the US also has a whole lot more cash out thier representing that economy.