American Couple Reacts: Learning about British Currency, Past & Present! P.O. Box gifts at the end!

[@TheNatashaDebbieShow]

Please read: Hi everyone! We hope you liked this episode. We know this video is 5 years old & a bit out of date but the basics of the currency we finally understand! We don't need more comments telling us it's out of date, we get it! Your comments are always helpful so please check before commenting that the same comment isn't posted 100 times already. And please remember no video will ever cover any one topic 100%. Please Like the video & thanks for being you! ❤

[@DeaconWilliamBrodie]

Good video guys. Just thought you might like to watch this video which is the almost identical but it shows you Scottish money. Enjoy :) kzbin.info/www/bejne/jGfPmZahhaeBm7M

[@frankripley6401]

Hi lovely ladies, just to add to your confusion, a slang term for the half crown, (2s/6d) used by my dad (& others?) was “half a dollar”; at the time the exchange rate was $4 to the £. How times change! Also Guineas were used for buying/selling racehorses as well as in “posh” shops. Btw, in this context, posh = pretentious. Good luck & keep on posting.

[@jonbrookes9434]

Hi ladies, this may be a long one, but the old currencies are in my wheelhouse as a Saxon/Viking reenactor. so, pence and shillings are very old, even ancient, forms of currency. the d that noted old pence comes from the Roman Denarius (their lowest currency) and the Shilling S from Solidus 9their slightly better currency) this held on in the "Dark Ages" or Anglo-Saxon period (500AD onwards). where the money was all in silver pennies. then, however, it was 6d, or pence, to a schilling, and 240 of these pennies weighed 1 pound, as in lb. so for them it was 40 shillings to a pound. Henry VIII comes along, and changes the value of the silver in the currency so that it becomes worth less... and now 12 pence make a shilling, and 20 shillings make a pound, and this is how it was until 1971. Remember, 100 pence make a quid. And their notes have gone plastic, with £5 having Churchill, £10 having Jane Austin, £20 having JWM Turner (artist) and the £50 having Alan Turing. All the best to you two lovely ladies

[@davidingram7459]

£50.00 is the highest note in England, but in Scotland, we have £100.00 note

[@auto98]

@@davidingram7459 To be pedantic, the largest denomination English banknote is the Titan, worth £100,000,000, but they are obviously not in general circulation.

[@gfhjsb1685]

Hi, I'm 68 and live in Wales. I was brought up with the old REAL money!! People these days don't know how we pronounced those words so, I thought I'd help. pennies from 1-11 were said as 'a penny, twopence ( said as tuh-punse), threepence (thru-punse) or a 'threepenny bit', frourpence, fivepence, sixpence and so on. Pence is said as punse which rhymes with the u in thrust! Almost like we a say a for a dog a bone. A halfpenny catches everyone out these days. We said haypunny! So remember when you get your sixpence that it was a six punce!!

[@willo.social]

I don't know if you guys know this but when we walk into a shop and the item says £1, you hand over £1 at the checkout. Our tax is included in the price. When I've gone to the US it infuriates me that tax is added at the checkout as I never know how much extra I need.

[@andreromanczyk3264]

Really how confusing

[@Docktavion]

@@andreromanczyk3264 yeah and every state is different

[@JustMe-dc6ks]

Round the prices up so they’re easier to add, keep a running total, add whatever percent at the end. Often the total state and local sales tax comes to five or six percent, if you don’t know just use ten percent as it’ll almost always be less.

[@keithorbell8946]

Canada is the same as the USA, very confusing.

[@birdie1585]

It is illegal not to show the price that you have to pay in the UK, although the price may sometimes appaer as "£XX plus VAT". But VAT has one fixed %.

[@1972peachmelba]

Hi ladies, since this video was produced we now have new £20, £10, and £5 notes they are now plastic! And the pound coin now has 12 sides to it. 😊 We very rarely use £50 pound notes because there were that many fakes so they are hardly used.

[@danielwhyatt3278]

Yeah that’s definitely the thing about this country. We are always getting updated notes and pound and penny coins all the time. You can see that the pound coin here is also out of date as it is the older round ones whilst now we’ve obviously got the flat sided pound coins which have the inner silver steel colour which is much like the £2 coin.

[@kirkgannaway5098]

based on Australian plastic money and the 50 c coin has 12 sides. I think it was to help the blind so the $1 and $2 coin have an interrupted milled edge

[@frankripley6401]

Also , forgot to mention:- £ - pound, a fancy way of writing L - latin libra s - short for solidus, a Roman unit of currency d - short for denarius, also a Roman unit And that is why another term for money was Lsd! Not to be confused with a certain psychoactive substance!

[@capablancauk]

Shilling is German

[@frankripley6401]

@@capablancauk , yes but the s is abbreviation for solidus, a Roman coin.

[@Me-ll4ig]

I’m a Brit and I’ve never heard of the term ‘folding stuff’

[@davepavey2737]

i have, Del boy i', sure often said folding readies.

[@andrewobrien6671]

@@davepavey2737 It just means paper money

[@davepavey2737]

@@andrewobrien6671 i think your answering @me Question. ie you can only fold paper money!!!

[@ducatobeing]

You're kidding?

[@mikelheron20]

Me neither. Also Brits don't talk about bread and dough unless they work in a bakery.

[@bpf5666]

If she made a video about currency why wouldn’t she make an effort to get all the notes and coins? Also she didn’t mention the images on the back of the coins making the Royal Shield. We still have gold sovereigns and half sovereigns but they are usually made into jewellery or saved in collections in the hope gold prices will increase.

[@andyt8216]

I agree. Surely she could have found a blo*dy 10 p even if a £50 note was beyond her!

[@scotmark]

Aye, I found that particular video to be a bit half-arsed (was the word "denomination" considered too technical?). Also no mention of when they dropped the "NEW" in "NEW PENCE"...

[@frankhooper7871]

To my mind, 5 pennies would mean 5 separate 1p coins whilst 5 pence would mean any combination of coins that add up to 5p. £50 notes exist but are rarely used and a lot of shops won't accept them. Also, the notes being shown are well out-of-date as all our notes are now polymer [plastic] rather than paper.

[@goggler2]

Yup we used to have to call the manager or Supervisor over to accept a £50. I guess because they're so rarely used they're easy to fake without people noticing.

[@birdie1585]

There are also £100 notes - I don't recall ever seeing one.

[@birdie1585]

Note and coin designs, but not sizes and shapes, also frequently change, often to commemorate something in the case of coins.

[@whitewingedkrad]

@@goggler2 I remember this been on a TV programme that the £50 is the least counterfeited note.

[@nowt1002]

It's a old quid as well

[@tomchemtech6842]

As an Englishman in his 60's, I can say from my experience that one of the benefits of being at school during the pre-decimalisation "old UK money" days, was that most school pupils developed slightly more nimble life-long mental arithmetic skills than today's youngsters. Decimalised currency arrived in February'71, roughly at the same time as the use of the metric system was being slowly introduced for weights and measures. I do find it interesting that the US has had a decimal currency Dollar since its outset, yet still retains the usage of Yards, Feet and Inches for meaurements, & Gallons (of the US type) for petrol/ 'gas' purchases??

[@carlchapman4053]

A Quote from 'Good Omens' by terry Pratchett. “NOTE FOR YOUNG PEOPLE AND AMERICANS: One shilling = Five Pee. It helps to understand the antique finances of the Witchfinder Army if you know the original British monetary system: Two farthings = One Ha'penny. Two ha'pennies = One Penny. Three pennies = A Thrupenny Bit. Two Thrupences = A Sixpence. Two Sixpences = One Shilling, or Bob. Two Bob = A Florin. One Florin and One Sixpence = Half a Crown. Four Half Crowns = Ten Bob Note. Two Ten Bob Notes = One Pound (or 240 pennies). Once Pound and One Shilling = One Guinea. The British resisted decimalized currency for a long time because they thought it was too complicated.”

[@Quidzyn]

I was nine when decimalisation happened. I actually prefer the old £/s/d system because twelve is divisible by more numbers than ten. There's loads more slang terms for notes and coins (for example the old 6d coin was a "tanner", a 12d coin was a "bob", hence a ten shilling note was commonly called "ten bob"). Slang terms for money can be fun (£10 = "a cockle", £25 = "a pony", £500 = "a monkey", etc) and constantly evolving. Recently I note that £1000 is now commonly referred to as "a bag".

[@scotmark]

Same multiple-factor argument applies to imperial weights and measures. Thankfully there are very few occasions when you have to worry about divvying up a stone among anything other 2 or 7 people... Regarding the decimalisation transition period, I can't remember if it was me or the shopkeeper who got to decide whether I could get two or three penny chews for 1p... (But there *was* a strange rule about the conversion in either direction.)

[@TheHaplorhine]

She didn't give you the slang terms for the old currency: a shilling was referred to as a bob, a sixpence was a tanner and a threepenny piece was called a thrupny bit (also used in rhyming slang). There were also slang terms for amounts of pounds:, a pony is £25, a ton is £100, a monkey is £500, just so you could be more confused!

[@chriswalford9228]

And don't forge the lady Godiva, the half a dollar which was the old half a crown or 2/6p, two shilling coin aka a florin and silver threepenny bit aka a joey

[@dlanor9312]

Used to know a bloke called Bob Tanner, his nickname was one and six.

[@paulmidsussex3409]

To keep things simple a tanner is actually a curruption of ten ānna. An ānna was a British Indian coin worth one sixteenth of a rupee and for a long time ten ānna was worth approximately six pence. Exchange rates have moved since then.

[@TheHaplorhine]

@@paulmidsussex3409 I understand that the term pony and monkey also derived from the illustrations on Indian bank notes.

[@eclaire_x88x]

@@dlanor9312 love that 😂

[@tsrgoinc]

There is a lot of information missing, in what we call “old money” the three penny coin was pronounced Threp-knee or thrup-knee not three-penny and a two penny coin was called a tuppance! A shilling is also know as a bob, and a florin was also call two bob and then like shillings you’d say give us 10 bob or can I borrow 15 bob! There is also a number of slang words for new money, £20 is a score, £50 is a bullseye. That is the biggest note in circulation although there has been a note of a billion pound butt for transfers between banking establishments. We also have slang for amounts that are not bank notes, a pony is £25, £100 is called a ton, £500 is a monkey and £1000 is a grand or a bag of sand, some of these were originally regional but have become quite widespread now!

[@nicolascarey6330]

Also a sixpenny BIT was a TANNER and it was pronounced as sixp'nce, also thrup'nce. The endearment My Little 'Aporth was referring to a Ha'penny worth ( pronounced hayp'ny). The 1000 Guineas is a horserace. I don't know what the prize money is now. Silver thrupenny bits were put in Christmas Puddings, they are not poisonous, for children, and greedy adults, to find. I hope this is of interest. The logic in the first sentence is a bit convoluted, but I think it is understandable. Natasha, remember the old saw, Patience is a virtue (virtue is a grace, Grace is a little girl who would not wash her face).

[@DanFre40]

"shrapnel" is also sometimes used for coinage, as in "I've got a pocketful of shrapnel". A shilling being called a "bob" also led to the phrase "bob-a-job" where boy scouts would knock on people's doors asking if they had any small jobs that needed doing round the house in exchange for payment. I'm not sure if there was a 10-bob coin but the phrase "10-bob bits" is cockney rhyming slang for diarrhoea, as in "I can't come out tonight, I've got an attack of the ten bob bits"

[@tsrgoinc]

@@DanFre40 no, as a cockney myself we refer to as as having the two bob bits not the ten bobs, we rarely had that sort of money to lose!

[@joyfulzero853]

With reference to the 'silver' thrupenny bit that was shown, it was also known as a 'joey'

[@OnASeasideMission]

I was in secondary school when we switched from £"s"d to pounds and pence. Yep, 12 pennies to the shilling and 20 shillings to the pound (a guinea was 21 shillings, still in use when I was a lad) was cumbersome, but this was before the oil crisis of the early 70s, when prices went ka-boom, and pennies could buy stuff. My first ten shilling note was an amazing achievement. When I progressed to university, pound notes were referred to as 'Beer vouchers'. The sixpence was half a shilling and went out with decimalisation. Current value would be 1¼p.

[@andyp5899]

The currency symbol for the US japan and the UK follow the same rule the letter has two lines drawn through it, Y for the Yen, S for the dollar and L (Libra) for the pound. Libra is the Latin for pound. By the way, the S in the dollar symbol comes from the coin being made of silver. The story is a bit more complicated but that is essentially what it boils down to.

[@Macilmoyle]

And the word 'dollar' is a corruption of Joachimsthaler or Thaler which itself derives from the town of Joachimsthal in the Czech Republic a major silver mining area. (The waste from the mines was also the source of the material used by Pierre and Marie Curie to isolate Radium)

[@woodentie8815]

Are you Michael Caine?

[@Macilmoyle]

@@woodentie8815 🙂

[@MadTamB]

A farthing used to have a wren (a small bird) on the obverse side. Also interesting fact, see how the queen faces left, on coins, it alternated for different monarchs, so her dad was facing the other way as will Charles.

[@leohickey4953]

I found out by accident that they reused the old blanks from the farthing coins to make the new (decimal) pennies. There happened to be a farthing lying in a drawer at home in the 70's and it fitted directly over the penny I had in my pocket.

[@markwalker2627]

@@leohickey4953 Also 5p=shilling 10p=Florin(2 shilling) 2p=half penny.

[@cogidubnus1953]

@@markwalker2627 ...though the sizes of the 5p and 10p coins have subsequently been reduced. In former days the silver 3d, 6d, Shilling, Florin and Half Crown weighed in proportion to their value...so that the coinage could be counted simply by weighing it. This was slightly screwed by the introduction of the Nickel Brass 3d in 1937. Similarly the old Bronze coins for Farthing, Halfpenny and Penny could also be counted by weight...from 1860 up until 1971 anyway. In each case there were other values which I believe also fitted into the weighing series (Maundy Money coins, half farthings etc) which I've omitted to make life easier

[@garyhague5882]

Different sizes and different colours to help visually impaired people. There are also raised nodules for the completely blind to recognise the different notes

[@garyhague5882]

@@baylessnow yep cheers exactly the word I couldn't remember at the time.

[@tommydavies6223]

They say that a handful of coins from the old currency could have had coins that were well over 100 years old and had included the heads of the monarchs spanning that time. Bit of a legacy to lose, but our coins still go back 50 years I suppose

[@jonathanmaybury5698]

I still have some old pennies with Queen Victoria's head on them.

[@unclegreybeard3969]

Current currency is know internationally as GBP, (Great British Pounds) "We don't have a £50 note" - She means "I don't have one to show to you". The pound coin shown is out of date, they are now 2 tone with silver middle, as is the £2 coin. We do have a 10p coin, but she didn't have one to show. Canada by the way uses notes and coins of the same denomination as Britain and very similar designs. There is no special sign for a quid, it's just a slang term. The old currency - Pounds, Shillings and Pence = £SD where the old penny was denoted with a d, So your sixpence would be 6d or a sixpenny piece. I left school in 1971, so all through school we used and learned the old coinage and the new system came in in the year I left. We used to be able to buy 8 chewy sweets for 1d so the farthing still had a bit of use up until 1960 when it was withdrawn.

[@BedsitBob]

When you could buy a sweet for a farthing, you could buy *960* sweets for a pound, if of course you had a pound. 😁

[@anthonybaylord]

In Scotland they have £100 Bank notes.

[@anthonybaylord]

Yes we do. We have £5,£10, £20 and £50 notes and in Scotland they have £100 notes.

[@TechNomadUK]

Hey, I was like stop right there we bloomin do have a £50 note as i used one last month. Not really the best video to explain to a couple of Americans lolz.

[@vaudevillian7]

$100 is about £60 so there wouldn’t be much point having a £100 note, plus chip and pin and now contactless have long been way more widespread for much longer than the US so we’ve been more of a cashless society than the US for much longer. I think our divisions of money are absolutely spot on for being able to cover most combinations while generally minimising the amount of notes/bills you need

[@markianclark9645]

Sorry to correct you but 100 dollars is around 80 pounds..long time now since it was close to 60quid...devalued again and again since 2008 by recessions..

[@hiiamandi]

We do have a £100 note it’s issued in Scotland, rarely used but it’s legal and in circulation en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Royal_Bank_of_Scotland_£100_note (that is if English businesses accept them and don’t think it’s Mickey Mouse money!)

[@allenwilliams1306]

@@hiiamandi You are correct, but Scottish notes are not legal tender, even in Scotland. Anybody is within their rights to refuse to accept them.

[@TheGarryq]

@@allenwilliams1306 But anybody is within their rights to refuse Bank of England Notes, partly because the term legal tender has a very narrow definition

[@borderlands6606]

@@hiiamandi Big denomination banknotes are popular in criminal transactions, which is one of the reasons they are being phased out.

[@carltonurwin3923]

This video is part of a set of learning videos for English Language learners that's why she is explaining things slowly and simply. They're very good

[@plum_bit]

They're not very good. A video about money, but they don't have a 10p or £2 coin, or £50 to display. Also she's using slang terms that mostly died out in the 70s.

[@naomid5806]

If you've ever heard the rhyme for weddings of something old, something blue etc, well it goes further then what most people know. It's from a 19th century English rhyme that goes 'something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue and a sixpence in your shoe'. The sixpence is supposed to bring prosperity to the newly weds. So you can buy them in the UK still, so brides can put them in their shoe!

[@fossy4321]

Interesting fact if you measure the modern coins which have "flats" on the edges they actually measure a constant diameter, also the old symbols for Pound, shilling and penny were £sd or Lsd the term £sd (or Lsd) for pounds, shillings and pence referred to the Roman words libra, solidus, and denarius.

[@GSD-hd1yh]

Here is a comparison of values between Old £/s/d and New £/p. The direct comparisons that can be carried over for a single coin are :- 1s = 5p, 2s = 10p, 10s = 50p. New coins and their old equivalent values are :- 1p = 2.4d, 2p = 4.8d, 20p = 4s Old coins not carried over :- 1d, 3d, 6d, Florin, HalfCrown, Crown, Guinea. Technically 3d = 1.25p, 6d = 2.5p, HalfCrown = 12.5p, Crown = 25p and Guinea = 105p. As we did not want fractions of coins it is easy to see why these were discontinued.

[@CEP73]

My dad used to tell me off for saying 50 'P'. "It's pence!" He'd say!! 😂 Who remembers the half pence?!

[@franksrightboot]

Claire.. I remember the Farthing....yes i`m old.

[@cogidubnus1953]

halfpenny!

[@purpleunicorn5253]

Also remmber half penny sweets so you could have 10 sweets for 5pence my mum used to tell me off saying p instead of pence she would say you dont buy thing with vegtables 🤣

[@ladykaycey]

I remember you could get a half penny Dainty sweet and drumsticks (both chewy sweets) When you think about it, alot of sweets for a 5p mix up. Those were the days lol 😆

[@peteringlis1800]

me

[@KeyError]

We have 50 pound notes, though they’re somewhat rare and not always accepted. But they’re not our highest value notes, we have higher. Like, MUCH higher value. Like, ten million pound notes, and higher. They’re absolutely huge and held in various banks across the UK, they cannot be withdrawn from a hole-in-the-wall (ATM). Other rare and not always accepted notes are those of the Scottish and Northern Irish pound which, while being worth the amount printed on them and backed by the Royal Banks of Scotland and Northern Ireland respectively, are not legal tender meaning businesses are note required by law to accept them. I assume 50s are also not legal tender, but I don’t know.

[@elunedlaine8661]

We also had a coin called a crown, worth 5 shillings. So, a half crown (as mentioned in the video) is worth 2 and a half shillings. When decimilisation came in, the pound went from 240 pennies to 100p (pence) so an old sixpence (aka a tanner) became 2 and a half p. 10/- (shillings) became 50p, and you can't blame the Romans for this. My Dad used to carry loose change in his trouser pockets so he always made a jangling sound when he walked about. Natasha - you could probably find a sixpenny piece (6d) on an on-line auction site if no-one sends you one

[@markianclark9645]

Did you ever receive a Crown /5 Shilling piece? I still have mine from childhood...in its perspex sliding case...probably a collector would pay 20 to 50 pounds these days for it...

[@borderlands6606]

There was instant inflation on low value goods in 1971. Children's sweets that cost a penny - 240 to the £ - still cost a penny - 100 to the £. Even when halved to a ha'penny, the thing still cost more. Added to an already soaring inflation rate in the 1970s, it was difficult to track cost to value for houses and cars, to a loaf of bread or a bottle of milk.

[@davidmaggs6217]

I have a crown ( 5 shilling ) coin with the Queen on one side and Winston Churchill on the other. It’s dated 1965 and is in a sliding plastic case. I believe it was a gift from my fathers employer to me🤓

[@chrisshelley3027]

Wonderful video and gifts and cards too. In 1971 when Decimal money came in it took many of the old names from us (we stopped using them as almost everything became pence, this is why you lost your sixpence which sounds rude but I don't mean it to be, though it does get used that way occasionally, as does tuppence (2 pence)). The reason why we had 12 pennies to a shilling is because at auctions each of the knuckles on the four fingers on one hand was equivalent to a shilling, so people could bid just using one hand, if it went over a shilling there were only two people left bidding usually so not difficult to keep count, not many people had money in the pounds in centuries gone, horses were bought and sold in guineas (the lady in the video mentioned the Guinea being one pound & one shilling, the signs for the pound etc are £= pound S= shilling D= penny or pence together these are LSD, I know, it does make you wonder, oh almost forgot, I don't recall the lady saying about the slang for a shilling being a Bob, the most deadly coin was the sixpence as a Christmas tradition was to put a sixpence in the Christmas Pudding, any bacteria would have been killed off during cooking, but the choking hazard was high, being from a large family and my Dad being somewhat tight fisted pennies wrapped in tin foil were in the pudding, I never liked the pudding and that suited my Dad, sorry for rambling on. Take care :)

[@England91]

@@chrisshelley3027 bob is still occasionally used

[@fantasticplastic5336]

We had A 50 pound note but they where counterfeited on a large scale plus shops would loose out on a lot of change giving for what the customer needed.

[@sampeeps3371]

That's the old notes. The new ones are a kind of plastic. It's a digital world now. I pay contactless with my phone for everything. Haven't really touched money for more than 2 years.

[@davidhall7811]

old pound coins too :-)

[@sampeeps3371]

@@baylessnow I don't care if they watch me. It would be a boring job to watch me 😂

[@Michael-kt6gi]

Bigger fool you then. I get some things cheaper when I pay with cash.

[@5556665012008]

There are also Scottish & Northern Irish notes with different colours & pictures on the back

[@angelavara4097]

I never understood the old coinage so was glad when the new coinage came in. A quid is also called a nicker.

[@AndrewHalliwell]

Old currency was more human friendly, you could work most of it out using fractions because 12 is an anti-prime, divisible by 1,2,3,4 and 6. Decimal is terrible in that respect, only being divisible by 1 and 5.

[@davidcook7887]

That’s going back a bit.

[@curlyprincess1]

I'm 36, always lived in the UK and don't remember ever learning about old money...so confusing!!

[@jemmajames6719]

I’m in my fifties never heard it called the folding stuff! There are lots of slang terms for money in the UK, some of the top of my head, Brass, Smackers, Wonga.

[@wessexdruid5290]

What would you use a farthing for? There was a time when a loaf of bread cost a quarter of a(n old) penny.

[@sophiemartin547]

Also, on our coins there's one cool aspect too. If you have the rights ones (as designs will differ on coins), each have a section of a shield on them as part of their design, and when you put them together in the right way, they make a whole shield (or a coat of arms). Well thought out! One thing to add, our £1 coin has changed since that video - it remains a similar size, but now has 12 edges which makes it harder to make fakes. It has a small silver piece in the middle, and remains the same gold-ish colour on the outside (like the £2 coin). We do also have £50 notes, but usually hard to come by, and not many people use it. When (or if) we do use it, some wont accept them because so many may be fake, or are very wary of it, and like to check with their managers on if they can accept it.

[@cogidubnus1953]

The Pound coin is twelve sided ("dodecagonal")

[@sophiemartin547]

oh yeah, my mistake! don't know what on earth made me put 20!!

[@GSD-hd1yh]

Another fact not mentioned is how our coinage matched by weight. Until 1971 two farthings weighed the same as one halfpenny, and two halfpennies weighed one penny. Similarly the one shilling was half the weight of the florin/two shilling/two bob coin. After 1971 the same was done with the 1p and 2p coins, and also the 5p and 10p coins or pieces. The old style half-crown (2s6d) weighed the same as 5 sixpences, two shilling coins and one sixpence, or one florin and one sixpence. Before coins became what they are today they were pressed out in the same fashion as sealing wax and often had jagged edges. Conmen would debase the coinage by cutting off these edges so that the coin was now underweight and no longer matched its face value.

[@rogoth01themasterwizard11]

just as a note, the actual money shown in this video you watched is out of date, all of our notes are now plastic, not paper, and the pound coin shown in the video is no longer legal tender, the 'new' pound coin has a multi sided design and the same colour scheme as the £2 coin, with a silver center piece and golden edge to the coin, and the 'famous people' on the backs of our notes have all been changed from these ones shown, as a side note, you can also get commemorative £5 coins from the royal mint, which are legal tender if you're desperate for cash and have one that you got as a present or something, but they are only found as rarities due to them being mostly as a 'show' item and not really used in day to day use.

[@chrisswain488]

The notes are all plastic now too. Sir Winston Churchill is on the back of the £5 note. Jane Austen is on the £10 J M W Turner is on the £20 Alan Turing is on the £50

[@godsavethequeen3395]

I've literally just noticed why the old victorian bicycle was called a Penny farthing (penny -large wheel at the front, farthing - little wheel at the back) man do I feel dumb!

[@pauloliver8130]

Nice video ladies. The notes and some of the coins have changed since this video was made. The notes are no longer paper but are now polymer which makes them last longer if you find them in you washing machine. The symbol we use for the pound is £

[@lewisporter4378]

We now have new notes. They're the same currency but new designs. And also our quid is now a different shape. Keep up the good work ladies. X

[@PaulHutchinson]

In addition, the new notes are made of polymer not paper (they even have a see-through panel!).

[@Zentron]

@@PaulHutchinson and they also have braille

[@jd2375]

And new pound coins

[@davidhall7811]

Hate to criticise the lady doing the subject video but you would have thought she would get all the coins and notes to show, lol. Loved how amazed you were by the way :-)

[@ladykaycey]

We have £100 notes in Scotland. Scotland produces its own notes and we use them as well as the bank of England notes. Its very difficult to use Scottish notes in England as they don't really recognise them and often refuse to accept them even though they're legal tender. If I give my nephews money when they come up on holiday (my brother and his family live in Wales) I have to make sure I give them English notes to take home with them.

[@dyastylianou8493]

That's a sign of ignorance on the part of the shop keeper then as Scottish notes are legal tender. Everyone knew that I thought.

[@marcuswardle3180]

As it is Scotland some banks produce their own bank notes. Therefore the banks have to guarantee, by law, that they have equivalent assets to pay for all the banknotes they have in circulation. This is why a lot of people south of the border will not accept Scottish tender. The money is guaranteed by a private bank where as English notes are guaranteed by the Bank of England.

[@dyastylianou8493]

Thank you Marcus I didn't know that. They say you learn something everyday. Which maybe why Little Miss Krankie hasn't thought about the currency if she gets her independence she so badly wants.

[@lexiwilliams9422]

Marcus Wardle but surely bank of Scotland notes are known to be legal tender they have branches in England.the English shops still refuse them .I thought it was because they were easy to counterfeit.

[@leeriches8841]

@@lexiwilliams9422 I don't think it's necessarily because of that- I think it's because we have so many designs from our many banks!

[@nickgrazier3373]

Couple of fyi’s. 1. the very old silver 3pence pieces were traditionally put in the Christmas Pudding (or older name figgy pudding) the person who found it was thought to have good luck (only if they didn’t choke on it of course) 2. Where you may have heard of a Farthing was from the old bicycle named Penny Farthing (big wheel at the front tiny wheel at the back.

[@Kari_B61ex]

I was 10 in 1971, and I had to teach my parents and Grandparents the new decimalised currency. They didn't have a clue, and were confused, even though it was so much easier.

[@andrewfitzgerald2327]

Do you remember going to the shops and thing's were priced in new money and old money. This added to the confusion even more, "whats that in old money" which prolonged the pain even more.

[@Kari_B61ex]

@@andrewfitzgerald2327 Yes definitely. I used to say to my parents, stop thinking of things in old money, and you'll get used to it quicker.

[@alicemilne1444]

Actually, I was 15 in 1971 and the new currency was not easier at all. Mental arithmetic was much, much easier before then. At the shops everyone could do sums in their head. The day the new currency was introduced, all the people at tills and cash desks sprouted pencil and paper.

[@ffotograffydd]

How can decimal not be easier? Surely everyone can count to ten?

[@alicemilne1444]

@@ffotograffydd It's not counting to 10, it was the fact that everything could be handled in multiples of 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 12, 20. You didn't have to add or multiply/divide anything much up beyond 20 in daily life. You bought things in dozens or scores. A dozen eggs at 3d an egg was 3s. 8 boxes of chocolates at 2/6 was £1. 1-1/2 yds of elastic tape (for knee-sock garters) at 6d a foot was 2/3. A gross of envelopes at 2-3/4d an envelope was 33s. You could do all those sums in your head. People simply weren't used to counting up to a hundred in those days.

[@faithpearlgenied-a5517]

Wow beautiful picture of Freddie 😍 what a gift.

[@stevenmaher7046]

And to confuse things even further, Scottish cash is the same numeracy but different pictures on the paper notes, dependant on which bank made it

[@neilmcdonald9164]

Yes,3 banks and you still have a £100 note🎩

[@4svennie]

Worth noting that whilst those are old bank notes. They had raised areas to more visually impaired users can fell the difference. The current bank notes are plastic and see through in places. The new bank notes also have raised markings in one corner. On the side with Her Majesty's face on, in the top left. The five pound note (fiver) has no tactile raised area, whilst the ten pound note (tenner) has a cluster of four raised dots in a square and the twenty pound note there are three clusters of four raised dots in a square, mounted above each other going from the top left and down.

[@knottyeti]

This video has an amusing call back to another of your videos. Threepence coins were also known as 'thrupenny bits' which is rhyming slang for parts of female anatomy.

[@josefschiltz2192]

Hm. Never found any of those in our Christmas pudding!

[@joyfulzero853]

In that case LOTS of things are!

[@gerrymccullogh665]

Bread is linked to your previous Cockney rhyming slang, Bread & Honey = Money with only using bread dropping the rhyming Honey. You knead dough to make bread meaning you need money

[@BarleyC]

Great episode - very entertaining and informative! Brings back memories of the change to decimalization in '71. And so glad you like the scarf! :)

[@TheNatashaDebbieShow]

You know that scarf is part of me now... it goes where I go! ❤

[@davidjackson7814]

A 5p coin is sometimes called a 'bob' . I.e. if something costs 50p some people might say 10 'bob'.

[@octaviussludberry9016]

One interesting thing about British notes - if you have an old note, even a 300 year old note, you can take it to the Bank of England and they will exchange it for one which is legal tender now.

[@beeduo]

we now have new notes with different people on the back of them 5 = Winston Churchill 10 = Jane Austen 20 = JMW Turner 50 = Alan Turing

[@janemann2756]

In Scotland we sometimes say five quid or ten quid also for £5 or £10 same for any amount actually e.g. thirty five quid for £35 pounds. .

[@fluffyjojo4570]

Same in England. We say quid for any amount of pounds.

[@shaunprendergast8900]

I'm British and still don't understand the pre decimalisation currency, my grandparents would tell me how much they were paid when they were working. It still confuses me, and I have an old box full of old coins.

[@dee2251]

Yet we all coped very well with it. Pounds, shilling and pence columns for adding up. I was at school when the change happened and I can remember my mother saying decimalisation was a scam. She said before decimalisation it cost her one old penny to use the ladies. When the coin slots were changed it immediately cost two new pence.

[@thisisnev]

She didn't really go into the slang for pre-decimal currency, apart from the ubiquitous quid. There's "bob" for shilling, e.g. two bob or a ten bob note, "ha'penny" for halfpenny, "thru'penny bit" (or "thruppence") for threepenny, and "half a nicker" for ten shillings. To complicate things further, there were ways of expressing prices, like "fourpence ha'penny" for 4½d. (She forgot to mention that 'd' was the abbreviation for penny.) A price might be written as £2 12/1½, which would be said as two pounds, twelve [shillings] and a penny ha'penny. Don't worry, any Brit under the age of 50 would be as confused as you! There's a great US Army training film on KZbin from 1942, in which Lloyd Bridges tries to explain all of this in a pub, but gives up and recommends just putting all your change on the bar and letting the barmaid take the right amount. (Before you ask why it was so complicated, though, ask yourselves why you still use Imperial/US weight and measures long after we wised up and converted to the metric system!) Another term for coins, especially the copper ones (now actually made of steel), is "shrapnel" as they're not worth much but you tend to acquire a lot of them because items tend to be priced to 99p rather than rounded up to the nearest pound. Covid has hastened the use of cashless transactions, thankfully, so pockets worn out by excessive loose change are becoming a thing of the past! BTW, the reason for the currency units going down as far as a farthing is that, prior to the 20th century, a pound was a considerable sum of money and most workers would only be paid a shilling or two per week. Thanks for another great video!

[@cogidubnus1953]

I'm only in my sixties and still recall the Hovis Penny Loaf I sometimes got treated to on the way home from primary school...and farthing sweets from the corner shop..I spent my last farthings from my Piggybank on the last day of December 1960...predictably I bought farthing sweets with them

[@helenjarvis7755]

Imperial system before 1971 was based on 12. Decimal system we use now based on counting in 10s. I was 8 or 9 when it all changed and was taught the decimal (10} system. I dont remember or understand the previous money system. My grandmother used to save up threepenny and sixpenny bits or coins in a tin for me to buy sweets when I was a very small child. Six and three divide into 12. We now have 5p and 20p 50p which divide into 10 and 100. Hope that helps. We never bothered to change miles to kilometres on our roads though. I still sometimes think in feet and inches pounds and ounces though. My children are all fully compliant with centimetres and metres etc

[@barryhopwood6172]

The old 6 pence (6d) pieces were still available until 1980 and I think just before they were withdrawn Bryan Mays guitar tech went to the bank and got a big bag of 6 pence pieces. Don't know how many he's got left, but he's still playing.

[@jeffreyprice773]

6/10/22 A £ pound is a quid. The notes we have now are like plastic. 6th October 2022

[@blindarchershaunhenderson3769]

Love the Union Jack apparel it suits you! For the visually impaired in the UK they notes have a series of braille dots on one side, one set of dots on the £5, two on the £10, and three on the £20, I believe the £50 has four sets of dots, but have never seen a £50 in a long time. Our currency before we joined the European community was based on the 12th everybody else in Europe was based on 10. The sixpence you keep mentioning was half a shilling, we had 1p, 3p, 6p (sixpence), shilling (12p), £ (240p), we also had a Guinea which was £1 and one shilling, today's Guinea is the equivalent of £1-05p (105p). After joining the European community in 1971 our money went to base 10.

[@TheNatashaDebbieShow]

Thanks! Could always use more! 😉❤

[@daveofyorkshire301]

A little more to confuse you about old currency... Pence was denominated by "d" so you'd get 2s6d fir 2 shillings sixpence... "d" coming from the Latin denarius..

[@richarddickson747]

I am in my 70s and I remember using farthings. There were 2 types of sixpence, one was made from nickel and one was made of silver. A lot of people prize the silver ones to put into a Christmas pudding as the silver did not contaminate the pudding. Nowadays if you find a silver sixpence in your bit of pudding you would swap it for a prize and the silver coins would be re-used year after year. There was an early model bicycle which had a very large front wheel and a very small back wheel which was called a Penny Farthing because it looked like the two coins.

[@seedhillbruisermusic7939]

what's interesting about the term Quid for a pound is that unlike Buck we never use the plural. Whereas you would say 50 bucks for 50 dollars we would say 50 quid for 50 pounds, we'd never say 50 quids. there's no such word as quids it's only ever quid. it's a singular word and a plural word in one. A bit like sheep. You'd never say I saw 3 sheeps in a field you'd say I saw 3 sheep. Plural and singular in one word.

[@thisisnev]

The one exception is if you're "quids in", i.e. you've just acquired a decent amount of money.

[@seedhillbruisermusic7939]

@@thisisnev that's true. Isn't that interesting! I wonder why. I mean where does "quid" come from? why is it normally singular and plural at the same time except with "quids in". Language is fascinating and confusing. "I've done this business deal and I'm quids in, I'll maybe make 1000 quid out of it."

[@fabulousaardvark4776]

Back in 1775 the system of 20 shillings to the pound was YOUR currency too. In Massachusetts in 1725 a male indoor servant was paid £3 10 shillings a year (860 pence). This is 2.36 pennies a day. In 2021 US average wage is $11.25 per hour. This a farthing is roughly $1.20 in today's terms. I can recall on the sixties £1 being worth $4. So the half crown was also sometimes called half a dollar. The pound has been used on England since 800 CE in one form or another. The medieval economy was based on use of the silver penny.

[@glenostick3979]

Elizabeth Fry was a Quaker and prison reformer but she was also part of the Fry's chocolate company. They produce stuff like Fry's Turkish delight and Fry's chocolate cream. I could be wrong but i think Mr Steven Fry is a distant relative. keep the good work on the channel. It is good to you take on tough subjects.

[@mermaidman1985]

And the former Cricketer and Nazi sympathiser C.B.Fry ;)

[@hiiamandi]

For the record Stephen is related to the Quaker fry’s of chocolate fame! He mentioned it on QI!

[@mathiasosiriswoodhal]

Good video ladies I still have some of the old coins used to collect them don't have a six pence tho I don't think lol hope you enjoyed your birthday Natasha 21 again xx lol keep up the good work ladies

[@richardpickering7436]

Great video🪙💷 interesting fact , horse auctions in the uk still sell and buy horses in the amount Guinea’s even though we don’t use them in anything else it is equal to £1.05 .

[@Klingon2468]

Well I understood the first half of that, but as I was born in 1970 and learned money after decimalisation, I too understood nothing about the old money. The only thing I know about the old money is that the notes (paper money) were white. As for learning about other country's currency in school we didn't learn that much either we were taught that America used dollars and cents, but I have no idea what a nickle or dimes are or what they are worth. As a lot of your viewers are from the UK perhaps you could do a video and explain your money? I know I would watch that. But that's not saying much as I have watched and will continue to watch all of your videos. LOL Much love to you both as I eagerly anticipate you next video. ❤️❤️❤️

[@AlSnoopsReid]

Only a £5 note was white!

[@johntait929]

@@AlSnoopsReid only a very old £5 note was white. A fiver was (and is) blue, A pound note was green, and a 10 bob note was brown. Nobody I knew used tenners, far to valuable, in much the same way that very few people today have seen a £50 note, let alone used one. High Street banks don't have them.

[@AlSnoopsReid]

@@johntait929 Yes, I was aware of that, that's why I only mentioned the white fiver.

[@nicolachandler7563]

Hi Natasha and Debbie. Quick bit of useless information, you can arrange all the coins in a pattern and the backs of the coins will form one big shield.

[@Isleofskye]

I enjoyed that Ladies.240 OLD PENCE in a £ was too cumbersome and would weigh down some purses...lol....so 20 Shillings in an old pound and 12 old pence in one shilling meant 20x12=240 OLD PENCE in a Pound (£) I had to serve in a major London store on the first weekend after a lifetime's currency change for some people in 1971 as a 17-year-old schoolboy "Saturday Assistant ".Luckily, Maths is my strong point but it was still chaotic.:) In London Cockney Rhyming Slang a £1 is a "nicker" or an "Alan Whicker" who used to be a famous World English Traveller introducing to the rich and famous around the World:)

[@HankD13]

Tis true! £50 notes a lovely red colour (if you are dealing with large amounts as payment, you tend to get them) - but rarely seen. We would never really say "x" pennies, but "x" pence. It shorter and comes out of the mouth much easier. I am old enough to remember the pre-decimal currency (though living in Kenya!) My favourite - was the three penny coin, the "thruppenny" bit. Old money was much more fun, but really confuses the younger generation! The new silver 5p coin is similar in appearance to an old six pence. Fun stuff.

[@arwelp]

She’s a bit confused about why we decimalised - it had nothing to do with joining the EEC. It had been considered for a long time and the process was begun for real in the early 60s. The florin coin was introduced in 1849 as an experimental early effort at decimalisation, denominated “one tenth of a pound”, but the process didn’t go further for over a century. Other countries with an £sd-based currency decimalised in the previous decade - South Africa in 1960, Australia in 1966, New Zealand in 1967, though they split their pounds into 2 rand or dollars of 100 cents, so a cent was only worth 20% more than an old penny. Ireland decimalised the same day we did, 15th February 1971. On the penny/pennies/pence thing, the 1p coin is a “penny’; if you have 5 of them you have five pennies but the total value you have is five pence.

[@paulmidsussex3409]

I can understand your confusion about pounds and quids, until I visited the states I thought I had to bring stags with me into the shop when I made a purchase.

[@TheNatashaDebbieShow]

😂😂

[@davidcook7887]

In London you just need to make sure debit card is contactless. You just tap and go for everything, up to 100 quid a day. There is one busker where you can tap 50p as you walk by.😀

[@MegaJackpot180]

Brian may buys up a bunch of tanners (sixpence) because as you say you lose them have a look at premier guitars Rig rundown on brian may they mention about them

[@iaincleary321]

Scotland also had £100 that you could use anywhere in the UK, the largest english note was the £100,000,000 (one hundred million pounds)

[@jiggely_spears]

Deffo not anywhere - there's lots of places in England that won't take English £50s - and quite a few won't take Scottish notes at all.

[@aragonsommer7649]

A bit late to this video, which I found quite interesting. I lived through decimalisation in 1971 and realising that you have watched the video explaining our currency, I have a few documents that summerise the coins (pre-decimalisation) should you wish to have a look at them. How do I get them to you, if you should wish to see them? I also have a sixpence for you should you wish to receive it. Again, how do I get it to you please?

[@davidhughes4089]

Keep your spirits up and keep pushing forwards ladies! ❤️🇺🇲🇬🇧🇺🇲🇬🇧❤️

[@k2411871]

In Scotland they have a £100 note but generally people here often pay using (debit/credit) plastic. So the only place you'll get £50 notes are through a bank teller, and that's if your taking out a large cash amount. Scottish currency is legal tender in England but they have their own notes and they're issued by 2 banks as opposed to the Bank of England

[@MadTamB]

3 banks (Bank of Scotland, Royal Bank of Scotland & the Clydesdale Bank). Years ago in Denmark I saw different rates of exchange for Scottish and English notes.

[@KitsyX]

There are three types of Scottish bank notes, I believe... Bank of Scotland, Royal Bank of Scotland and Clydesdale, I think... Working in retail it'd be a pain to keep track of because you needed to know what the signs of a real/fake were >_

[@jackieparish979]

I don't know if this is true, but have read/heard that the Royal Mint still produces a very small quantity of 'sixpences' especially for Brian May to use as plectrums! Incredible Huh? The Weatherman Walking is also on KZbin and covers lots of the UK if you are interested.

[@sarahealey1780]

That picture is amazing and well done Linda it's a little bit ofa cross between Freddie and Jim Morrison 😀 but still excellent xx

[@Pineverends]

The video missed one of the most interesting points about the old currency. Notice that the coins were followed by a d and not a p. The d stood for denarius, plural denarii, the currency in Roman times.

[@TheNatashaDebbieShow]

Fascinating!!

[@dasy2k1]

11:30 Pound is to Dollar what Quid is to Buck

[@richardmeech7422]

Allow me to now confuse you. Northern Ireland and Scottish banks each issue their own bank notes which are different to those issued by the Bank of England. In Wales the penny is often referred to as a cent (e.g. On car park payment machines). In pre 1971 currency, the 3d was referred to as thruppence the thruppenny bit. Not true to say that decimalization was a condition of joining the EU.

[@arwelp]

Err no, they’re not referred to as cents in Wales. The Welsh word for penny is ceiniog, plural ceiniogau, and the symbol is “c” which may be where you’re getting confused.

[@petejones7878]

The most widely recognised Cockney rhyming slang terms for money include 'pony' which is £25, a 'ton' is £100 and a 'monkey', which equals £500. Also used regularly is a 'score' which is £20, a 'bullseye' is £50, a 'grand' is £1,000 and a 'deep sea diver' which is £5 (a fiver).10 Jan 2018

[@paulmidsussex3409]

Other than deep sea diver none of those is cockney ryming slang.

[@kronos2611]

I'm still watching but I'll comment now :). £100 notes do still exist but I think at this point they are only issued in Scotland and nobody uses them, if you were to try and spend one chances are you would get rejected. Even the use of £50 notes are fairly rare. That also brings me to the issue of Scotland and Northern Ireland where banks in those countries print different versions o the currency. This leads to a lot of controversy when you try and spend one of those notes in England and Wales where people are less used to seeing them in daily life. The notes can be spent anywhere in the UK but getting them accepted can be a challenge. Crown dependencies also print their own notes and they can look very strange to us!

[@leesteele9261]

I am from Scotland one a guy come up to the till we’re I was working asking for change for a £50 pound note he had three in his wallet in including the the one it was 4.I had to reject him and said go to a bank for change. 🙂🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

[@jonathanocallaghan9202]

Pre decimalisation coins were Farthing, a quarter penny Ha'penny, half a penny Penny, 1 penny Thrupenny bit, 3 pennies Sixpence also known as a tanner, six pennies A Shilling, 12 pennies 2 shillings also known as two bob, 24 pennies Half a crown, 30 pennies Crown, 60 pennies. Then notes 10 shillings also known as a ten bob note, 120 pennies 1 pound, 240 pennies 5 pounds 10 pounds 20 pounds 50 pounds. Hope that clears things up a little.

[@TheNatashaDebbieShow]

Yes! Thank you for this cheat sheet!

[@jonathanocallaghan9202]

I forgot one, The Guinea, which was 1 pound and one shilling, It was usually used for large transactions and we have classic horse races called The One Thousand and Two Thousand Guineas.

[@markkettlewell7441]

£ is the sign for a pound Sterling. A ‘sixpence’ is half a shilling (worth 6 old pennies).

[@jamesrhoades7061]

... or two and a half new pence!

[@seraphinaaizen6278]

Another slang that the video doesn't mention is a slang for £1000, which would be a "grand". One pound coins have actually been redesigned since this video was made (about 2017, I think). They're now a made up of two different metals; a silver interior with a bronze rim. They're a lot prettier, now. When I was a child, they were just a kind of ruddy bronze. In Scotland, we have our own notes, but they're considered legal tender and have the same value. In Scotland we also have a £1 note (which I saw she had written on the board, but she didn't talk about it), although they stopped making new ones in 2001, the ones still in circulation are legal tender. Although it's very rare to see them.

[@dorothysimpson2804]

Scotland has its own notes as does Northern Ireland and the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands.

[@andyt8216]

Exactly, she failed to mention that.

[@stephensmith4480]

Another great Video Girls. I remember having to learn the new Decimal system in school, as we were changing over from the old, Imperial system. It took some doing but is easier when you are a youngster. Brian May`s Guitar technician, goes searching the internet and old, flea markets for bags of old Sixpences for Brian to use , as picks. The Guinea, was used in the more, upmarket shops, were the more affluent person would go to buy things. The original Guinea coins, which were made of Gold, were minted from 1663- 1814 and Race horses are still sold in Guinea`s in Britain as a form of tradition, but it`s the equivalent amount in pounds.

[@melmcgarr7611]

I think Brian May gets his 6 pence coins specially made these days. Love the picture of Freddie! 😍

[@KernowWarrior]

Go to any flee market/Collectors fair or car boot sale, you can pick loads up for next to nothing.

[@susansutton2012]

Pennies are very old currency in UK. First introduced in the 8th century.

[@dodger1792]

She missed out sovereigns and half sovereigns which are gold and still produced in limited numbers,the face value is £1 but they are worth much more,Guineas and half guineas were also made of gold. Lindybeige has a video out on why the old currency made much more sense,he has a quirky sense of humour.

[@davidjones3767]

When I was younger the half crown (2/6d) was also called half a dollar which stems from 1$ being worth 5 shillings at the time .

[@pviolet2906]

Many families have a silver sixpence which passes down through the family, it’s purpose is for a bride to wear in her shoe for luck on her wedding day.

[@andrewcoates8906]

A silver sixpence is also used as a good luck token, which is cooked into homemade Christmas puddings, the person who gets the coin in their portion of pudding is supposed to have financial luck for the next year and some families will ask for it to be kept in the house where the coin was found, so that the household doesn’t loose all of their money, whereas others insist that the finder should keep the coin for next year’s pudding.

[@karensmith2215]

In 1971, on the day that we changed over to decimal currency, I was working at my part-time job in the local hardware store. I was still at school and just coming up to eighteen. We had an enormous conversion chart on the wall behind the counter, partly as an aid to our customers and partly to reassure them that they weren't being ripped off. There was a lot of suspicion regarding decimal currency. It was suspected, often quite rightly, that retailers would use the change to round prices up. For a long time people were still mentally converting and saying things like "good Lord, that's nearly fifteen shillings!".

[@Isleofskye]

I had to serve in a major London store called GAMAGES which was larger than Selfridges and a lesser version of Harrods but it closed one year after decimalization on the first weekend after a lifetime's currency change for some people in 1971 as a 17-year-old schoolboy "Saturday Assistant ".Luckily, Maths is my strong point but it was still chaotic.:) In London Cockney Rhyming Slang a £1 is a "nicker" or an "Alan Whicker" who used to be a famous World English Traveller introducing to the rich and famous around the World:)

[@bulkster1000]

Im glad I grew up on the new currency, and by the way Im Welsh not british

[@lesjames5191]

Not good with geography then😂

[@66LordLoss66]

I've built a small collection of pre-1971 British coins, recently. Mainly from my mother's old collection and then I bought some more to make up for any missing. I absolutely love them and lament that we fased them out. It seemed like a much better system than the decimal. Simple doesn't mean better. They give off this aura of a simpler time, when a pound was considered a fair sum of money and a couple of coins in your purse/pocket could get you quite a long way.

[@teejai5291]

And you called the flag by its correct name. 'The Union Flag.' Another great video girls.

[@zebj16]

The Anglo-Saxon King Offa (around 750 AD) introduceed the Frankish silver standard of librae, solidi and denarii into Britain. An English penny's weight was literally, as well as monetarily, 1⁄20 of an ounce and 1⁄240 of a pound of sterling silver (sterling indicating the quality and purity of the silver). It is abbreviated dwt, d standing for denarius - an ancient Roman coin, later used as the symbol of an old British penny as I said before. The penny weight (dwt) is 24 grains, or 1⁄20 of a troy ounce, or 1⁄240 of a troy pound ( hence why for the currency, there was 240 "pence" in a "pound" is was literally "a pound (lbs.) in weight of sterling grade silver". If given a bag of coins, you only needed to weigh it (assuming all the coins were silver). Try doing that with decimal, Napoleonic, pig-dog, burn-my-bottom, silly coins! (Do I smell of Elderberries?) "Grains" as a unit of weight, is still used for measuring gold and silver jewelry (maybe not anymore). A guinea (was 21 shillings or £1/1/0, now £1.05) was due to a gold coin, originally 20 shillings but the value of gold increased (up to 30 shillings, but later set at 21). In London Law courts, you used to pay your barrister in guineas, he (probably not any she's in those days) would keep a pound and give a shilling to the clerk of the court. Guineas were used a lot in horse racing and there are still races like the "1000 Guineas" at Newmarket for 3 year old fillies, often the when going is good, favours inside, Frankie Dettorri at the last furlong... sorry, no idea how I know all about that... don't tell the trouble! Ah, yes! Let's not forget the universal unit of speed "furlongs per fortnight", someone else can explain that.