2w ago

TIL the pound was named because 240 Sterlings (pennies) weighed a pound.

en.wikipedia.org

Pound sterling - Wikipedia

Also, that the Sterling is the longest continuous use currency in the world.

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The accounting system of dividing one pound into twenty shillings, a shilling into twelve pence, and a penny into four farthings was adoptedwhen?] from the livre carolingienne system introduced by Charlemagne to the Frankish Empire.citation needed] The penny was abbreviated to "d", from denarius, the Roman equivalent of the penny; the shilling to "s" from solidus (written with a long s, ſ, later evolving into a simple slash, /); and the pound to "L" (subsequently £) from Libra or Livre.when?]
I'm out.
- You're quitting early. That's not even half the fun of predecimal British currency. There is so much more:
  Edit: Well, that didn't work. Let me see, if I can fix it.
  Edit2: or maybe it did? I can see the image in the browser, just not in the app. Here is the link, in case someone else can't see it: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a4/British_predecimal_currency.svg
  
  SVG is a vector image format that probably isn't compatible with every Lemmy client. Here's a rasterized version from a screenshot:
  
  My brain hurts.
  
  Sorry sir all I've got is 3 groat
- I saw an interview when they switched to 100 pennies to a pound. People were going on about how the old system was so much easier and made so much sense, and the new decimalized system was weird and didn't make sense. It sounded exactly like when people say imperial is easy and metric is hard.
- The joke about wizard money at the start of Harry Potter makes so much more sense now.
- I guess simplicity and user friendly weren't big concerns back then.
  
  I suspect a lot of traditions and dealing with people that never learned to count beyond their fingers
- written with a long s]https//en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long\_s "Long s"), ſ, later evolving into a simple slash]
  Internet sarcasm should take note.
  /
If the only significance of 240 sterlings is that it weighs a pound, then it seems likely the pound would have been a pound, whatever number of sterlings it happened to be...
- It used to be 240 pence to a pound, before decimalisation (when it was updated to 100p to a pound because we were no longer insane)
  
  Implying Brits are no longer insane?
  
  https://youtu.be/_yE-wA24xJ8
- Like calling the numbering system base 10.
  It would be base 10 regardless of the number of units
  
  But what if I like counting by making hash marks on a stick?
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unary_numeral_system
The amount of slander against highly divisible numbers is this thread is appalling. How are you gonna split the bill with 2 friends with only 2 and 5 as factors? Virgin 10 vs Chad 240
- The only prime factor that 240 has which 10 doesn't is 3, so using 240 only really helps for multiples of 3
"Give me 240 Sterlings for a Pound," you'd say. Now where was I... ah, yes. The important thing was that I had a kipper in my waistcoat, which was the fashion at the time...
- Grandpa Simpson Onion Story (YouTube)
My BIL still gives his weight in "stone". As in, "I'm 12 stone, 7 lbs and 3 ounces".
I joke with him that only makes sense to people who are comfortable with Pounds, Shillings and Pence, too.
- The American system of exclusively using lbs for body weight really gets me. Is 180 lb heavy, or what?
- It all makes perfect sense
Is metric £ not counted as a new currency? Seems like you have to go through a lot of the same efforts as you would moving to a new currency.
- No, because the £ didn't change, it was just divided up differently.
  A pre-decimal £ is the same as a decimal £.
  You could technically still pay in Shillings until they redesigned the 5p.
  
  My grandparents still called them shillings sometimes, but been a long time since I've heard that!
  I'm only old enough to remember the old 10 and 50p
And supposedly the German mark got it's name because the pound was too much for them so they made a mark at the appropriate place to make it smaller and used that instead.
Does sterling imply silver? I did the numbers and apparently an actual pound of silver is now 422 pounds.
- Sterling silver is an alloy of silver and copper. Only supposed to be 7.5% copper though
Gold is not currency?

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