> I would like to publicly commend Jon and GZG for his costumer
1/20 of a pound (sterling) as opposed to a troy ounce, also 1/20 of a
pound (avoidupois) IIRC.
Old style: 1 Pound (l) = 20 shillings (s), 1 shilling = 12 pence(d) The
abbreviations l,s,d came from librii, solidii and denarii, old Roman coins
btw. So there were 240 pence (d) in a pound.
New Style (post 1967) 1 Pound = 100 New Pence (p) but the "New" got dropped in
about 1970 when the old currency was withdrawn. So there are 100 pence (p) in
a pound. So a shilling would be 5p.
A crown was 5 shillings, known as "Five Bob". A Half-crown was 2/6,
pronounced "Two-and-six". There were also Florins - 2 shilling pieces,
6d pieces (tanners**), 3d pieces (thrupence), 1/2d pieces (hapenny,
pronounced hay-penny), 1/4d pieces (farthings) which went out about the
> Alan E Brain wrote:
1 Pound Sterling = 20 shillings = 240 pence 1 Troy Pound = 12 ounces = 240
pennyweights
Pounds Sterling has been historically associated with silver. One realignment
in the price gold w.r.t. silver left us with a gold "one Pound coin" called a
Guinea that was worth 21 Shillings. You can still write cheques in Guineas and
luxury items (perfume, racehorses) are still valued in Guineas, now worth 1.05
Pounds, the accounting unit outliving the (valuable gold) coin as legal
tender.
> The abbreviations l,s,d came from librii, solidii and denarii, old
FWIW, The word "soldier" derives from solidii. Many old European countries
used their own L.s.d currencies. France had a "Livre", Italy still has a
"Lire".
[...]
> Even now you have to look carefully to distinguish between a UK 10p
Unless the UK has changed their currency recently ( I was last there 10 years
ago). All looked like the old Australian Shilling (Not to be confused with the
Austrian Schilling.)
New 10p and 5p coins are much smaller, and new 2p and 1p coins are plated
steel, instead of copper alloy.
AFAIK, Decimalisation was planned for in the nineteenth century, it just took
us a century to get around to it.
> Alan E Brain wrote:
Troy ounce?
I'm currious since I'm in a conversation about pounds and ounces of weight and
wondering if a Troy ounce is a curency.
> Troy ounce?
Troy from the weights used in the medieval market fairs of the city of
Troyes, France. IIRC 1/12 pound, but it might be 1/20--I'm too lazy
to pick up a dictionary and find out. Used for precious metals and
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> "K.H.Ranitzsch" wrote:
Must have left quite a mark when dropped on one's foot.
> "K.H.Ranitzsch" wrote:
I'm guessing that's half a lb. avoirdupois rather than troy, so 8
oz.? I'm used to seeing medieval accounts where 1 mark = 2/3 of a
pound sterling, 13s 4d, which would equate to 8 oz. of sterling silver.
I'm also guessing that the commonality of money around Germany and Scandinavia
was down to the Hanseatic League monopolising the trade around the Baltic so
we can, sort of, turn this around to the colony discussions... I mean it
hardly matters if you allow
colonists to have have lasers, tanks or pop-guns, if you dominate
the space around their planet you force a trade monopoly on them and extract
the profits of their labour (which, in turn, pays for your fleets). The
Hanseatic League (AFAIK) never once fielded an army, but they still got rich
on naval supremacy.
> I'm guessing that's half a lb. avoirdupois rather than troy
Half a pound avoirdupois, as well as half a pound troy.
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