Qsilv

When I was in England for a while, Easter rolled around and I wanted to dye eggs. All the local shops including a giant Tesco's looked at me like, "typical mad foreigner...sheesh" or just flat out curiously. Eggs were brown, silly git. Period.

I was assured that one did not dye eggs, one indulged in extra "sweeties". (Don't get me started on the percentage of the typical UK grocery store dedicated to desserts and candies ALL the time... like, 4 or 5 aisles out of 20? vs 1 or 2 in The States?)

Which led to a few more discoveries--

1. Harrods and the London Sainsbury's carry all sorts of wonderful eggs, including quail and pheasant and... yes... white chicken eggs (at 5 quid the dozen!)

2. One can dip speckled quail eggs in vinegar for a few minutes and *presto* --the brown slips right off as flakes!

; D

Baldur

I didn't know that about the spots on quail's eggs.
Can we have a brief educational section here please Qsilv?
If you or someone else types up the definition of different pieces of British currency Baldur will be most grateful and even print it out as a reference chart to help me when I'm reading fiction.
Baldur is fairly certain that there are 100 pence to a Pound Sterling, and can make an educated guess that a quid (from the Latin) would refer to a five pound note. But where do the other terms fit in?
What is a farthing? a Sovereign? a Crown? a Guinea?
I may be asking to compare obselete and modern terms here but this is fascinating nonetheless.
What are the denominations of the coins and their names?
What are the denominations of the notes and their names?
Both official and 'common' names please!

LOL, this has confused me forever.
Please and Thank you in advance.

Baldur

Here is an impromptu rundown of currency in the United States for my listeners elsewhere, if I have skipped anything someone please add it.

The smallest denomination is '1 cent', a coin also called a penny, there are100 cents in a dollar.

Next is the '5 cent' coin called a nickel

Then comes the '10 cent' coin called a dime

Then the '25 cent' coin called a quarter (as in one quarter of a dollar)

There is a '50 cent' piece called a hafl dollar (for obvious reasons), you rarely see these in day to day matters but is used at times as change from vending machines

There is also a rarely seen 1 dollar coin
The '1 dollar' is also the lowest denomination of note. Here our paper money is commonly called a bill, this would be a 1 dollar bill.

There is also seldom seen '2 dollar' note or bill. It is so infrequently seen that some people won't accept them, assuming them to be counterfeit.

There is a 5 dollar bill;
A 10 dollar bill sometimes referred to as a '10 spot';
A 20 dollar bill,
A 50 dollar bill
A 100 dollar bill sometimes referred to as a 'C note'
There are also 500 dollar bills
and 1000 dollar bills though they are rarely seen unless you are the type that carries huge sums to hide in other countries or to pay ransom.

Baldur

-hafl +half

Login

Here is a handy website for UK currency prior to 15 February 1971 (there were 20 shillings in a pound and 12 pennies in a shilling. The notation for the curreny then was:
£ = pound
s = shilling
d = penny
There were several more named coins ...
http://www.pewsey-heritage-centre.org.uk/pewsey-heritage-did-you-know-02.html

In that old currency, a shilling was often called 'a bob'.
A pound - £1 was often called 'a quid'
£5 would be referred to as 'a fiver' and £10 as a tenner.

The old pound was a note (paper money), whereas now it is a coin.
Ten shillings (10/-) was a note ... it's current equivelent (50pence) is a coin.

The notes on that site, for the currently used decimal coins, does not appear to be up to date ... you will be able to extract more information here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decimal_Day

A good site for the slang words is:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decimal_Day

Login

Sorry ... for the slang, got to:
http://www.hemyockcastle.co.uk/money.htm#slang

Baldur

Well that will keep me busy. All of Baldur's assumptions were incorrect LOL.
Thank you Login

Qsilv

Well, a US dollar is also often called a "buck" and the fifty-cent piece is a half a buck.

The UK quid is actually one pound.


But for the strange and wonderul world of archaic coinage there... pff... we need login or marg here... or grahame or puzzler... or... ANYone but me!

I had a pair of milkmen who delivered the richest most delectable jersey products --in glass bottles!-- and while making their own tea in my kitchen most mornings, would have a go at amusing themselves AND me with a wealth of silliness (mostly at my expense), basically teaching me survival etiquette.

They could also be counted on to repair my computers... and they did try hard to get the old money drilled into my thick skull, but it never stuck. In fact even with the new stuff, my technique was to hold out my hand with a bunch of coins and paper it and let the shopkeepers have their way. Kind souls, all of 'em.

;>

Qsilv

aha! Login, you absolute dear!

puzzler

So Baldur - you didn't miss me eh? A girl has feelings you know!
Great channel btw, even if I can't understand half of it! Has login nipped out to spend a penny?

Baldur

Thank you puzzler,
Yes of course Baldur missed you, I however assumed that you were actually still here, albeit quiet.

There are long stretches when I haven't drawn anything but I still try to keep up with the goings on.

puzzler

Ooo... I've come over all ethereal (10 points to puzzler!)

Dragon

While we're at world currency I'll throw Canada's into the mix. (Pretty similar to US.)

The small coins (Penny - 50 cent piece) are the same as the US coin though I've never heard a 50 cent piece referred to as anything else here and they are extremely rare)

Then we have a 1 dollar coin commonly called a Loonie because it has the image of a Loon on it (not because Canadians are Loonies )

Next is the 2 dollar coin called the Toonie simply because it seemed to fit. These have Polar bears on them so I suppose we could have called them beary's but then we really would be a bunch of loonies!

Then the 5 dollar bill
the 10 dollar bill
the 20 dollar bill
the 100 dollar bill (also sometimes referred to as a C-note here, I've always associated that term with hookers and drug dealers so I don't use it very often)
I'm sure there are bills higher than that but I've never seen them so I'm not really sure what they all are.

I was interested to hear that a shilling was referred to as a 'bob'. There's a line in a song by Great Big Sea (a very popular eastern Canadian band) that says 'For every bob made on the job you pay with flesh and blood' I thought it was talking about a 100 dollar bill since ours has a politician whose first name was Robert on it, but I suspect now that it means shillings. Don't you just love learning new stuff!

Login

Yes puzzler ... I went out to spend a penny and came back with a groat (4d):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groat_(coin)

In medieval times there was also a Ducat - 'piece of eight':
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ducat

I'm sure I've missed some ...

sheftali52

Sheftali has thoroughly enjoyed the money discussion. Many years ago, when Sheftali lived overseas, she carried a wallet with dollars, drachmae, and deutschmark in it, depending on where she was. The wallet had several different pockets, so theoretically Sheftali could keep the different money organized (not!) When she visited Greece and saw euros instead of drachmae, that just seemed wrong! Oh, and seeing a 10 million lira note in Turkey seemed odd, too, as it was worth just a few dollars. Such inflation is never good. Thx to all for the great money discussion and education in this thread.

solosater

What fun!

I too am a great reader of fiction - pure escapism (do I get points for that?) - and am befuddled (surely for that!) by the currency of the Brits (current and past). I've tried to do some research and only get more confused which, by the way, I still am but at least now I know I was looking at reliable sources.

I find it kinda' funny that they (the Brits) use the very logical and terribly easy to learn metric system but have such a crazy and (at least to me) illogical money system and that the Americans who refuse to adopt the metric system in favor of the very confusing (to me at least even though I've grown up with it) system of weights and measures they have but the money follows the rules of the metric system.

Now I’ve given myself a headache…

Robindcr8l

The only thing I know for sure about money of any denomination is that I rarely seem to have enough for what I'd like. Luckily, though, I usually seem to have enough for what I need. But never did I know there was such a thing as a $500 or $1000 dollar bill! Now I have something else to covet in life!

Dragon

I once had a bookmark that was a 100, 000 dollar bill. Not sure if it was an accurate depiction but it was fun to have.

Oh and solo, liked your comments about metric. We use it up here and have for as long as I can remember (though my mom remembers otherwise). Strangely most of us still count weight in pounds rather than kilograms though. We also use Celcius instead of Farenheit. It always seemed to make more sense to me. Freezing is Zero, +40 is ridiculously hot, -40 is ridiculously cold. It's all nice and even.

solosater

Are you too a little OCD? I think that's why I like it so much.

Dragon

I think I must have a little OCD, all my movies (which is a pretty big collection) are all in alphabetical order and they all have to be turned so the labels are in the same direction. My James Bond collection is the only batch that escapes the alphabetizing, sort of. They are all in chronological order but the group is under B for Bond. Ya, a little OCD.