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Whether "pound" or "pounds" was used depended upon the speaker, varying with class, region and context. 1/– (one shilling), colloquially "a bob"; the slash sign derives from the older style of a long s for "solidus", which is also one name for the sign itself; the '–' is used in place of '0', meaning "zero pence". [12] [13] 11d. (elevenpence)
Amounts over a pound are normally spoken thus: "five pounds forty". A value with less than ten pence over the pound is sometimes spoken like this: "one pound and a penny", "three pounds and fourpence". The slang term "bit" has almost disappeared from use completely, although in Scotland a fifty pence is sometimes referred to as a "ten bob bit".
The pound is the main unit of sterling, [4] [c] and the word pound is also used to refer to the British currency generally, [7] often qualified in international contexts as the British pound or the pound sterling. [4] Sterling is the world's oldest currency in continuous use since its inception. [8]
For example, 2 pounds 14 shillings and 5 pence could have been written as £2 14s 5d or £2/14/5. The origin of £/ L {\displaystyle {\mathfrak {L}}} , s, and d were the Latin terms Libra, meaning a pound weight (with the £ sign developing as an elaborate L), solidus (pl. solidi), 20 of which made up one Libra, and denarius (pl. denarii), 240 ...
Before Decimal Day in 1971, sterling used the Carolingian monetary system , under which the largest unit was a pound (£) divisible into 20 shillings (s), each of 12 pence (d). The pre-decimal penny was demonetised on 1 September 1971, just over six months after decimalisation, and replaced (in effect) by the decimal half new penny , with + 1 ...
The English penny (plural "pence"), originally a coin of 1.3 to 1.5 grams (0.042 to 0.048 troy ounces; 0.046 to 0.053 ounces) pure silver, was introduced c. 785 by King Offa of Mercia. These coins were similar in size and weight to the continental deniers of the period and to the Anglo-Saxon sceats which had preceded it.
Australian currency was originally based on British pounds, shillings and pence. That changed in 1966, when the country converted to Australian dollars and cents, similar to the U.S. system ...
Prior to 1971, the United Kingdom had been using the pounds, shillings, and pence currency system. Decimalisation was announced by Chancellor James Callaghan on 1 March 1966; one pound would be subdivided into 100 pence, instead of 240 pence as previously was the case. [9] This required new coins to be minted, to replace the pre-decimal ones.