Useful Notes / Old British Money

What do you mean, "it doesn't make sense"?

Contents: Top of Page, New Money, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand, The Americas

"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). One Pound and One Shilling = One Guinea.

The British resisted decimalized currency for a long time because they thought it was too complicated."

—Good Omens

You're reading a novel set in Victorian London and someone gives someone "three and six". Wait: they gave them what?

Welcome to the world of pounds, shillings and pence, the 'Old Money' of Britain and parts of the Commonwealth before it went decimal in 1971.

The rules:

• 12 pence ('penny' in the singular) to the shilling. The symbol for pence is d from the Latin denarius, and the symbol for shillings is s for solidus: both were Ancient Roman coins.
• 20 shillings (240 pence) to the pound. The symbol for pounds is £, as a migration from L for the old Latin libra, making this the L.s.d. (librae, solidi, denarii) system, and not much more comprehensible than the drug.^note The ancient solidus and denarius had a vastly different relationship of value; denarii were original silver coins, but were debased over time until they became coppers, while the solidus was originally a solid gold coin—hence the name—that at first minting was worth several hundred thousand debased denarii. However, Pepin the Short of France established a system of currency that used these terms as names for otherwise unrelated units in the 8th century, and the Anglo-Saxon kings across the Channel liked this new French money so much they brought it over. Note that for centuries, only pennies and multiples/fractions of pennies (like farthings and groats) were actually minted; the shilling/solidus and pound/libra were only units of account. The first pound and shilling coins were not minted until the reign of Henry VII (who issued the shilling-valued testoon and pound-valued sovereign in 1489).
• "Three and six" means three shillings and sixpence. The 'stroke' or 'slash' symbol / (also called a solidus, or virgule, which originated as ſ, the long-s character) was often used to indicate shillings when writing amounts of money in figures; three shillings sixpence would be written "3/6". Three shillings exactly would be "3/-".
• Prices higher than a pound, e.g. 4 pounds 3 shillings and 4 pence, were spoken as "four pounds three and four" and written as something like £4-3-4, £4/3/4d or £4.3s.4d. (As the song 'Boy For Sale' from Oliver! mentions, £4.3s.4d is exactly 1000 pence.) On bills from this period you will often see the @ sign used to indicate a particular item is priced "@ 3/6" or whatever: this was responsible for popularising the symbol on typewriters, then computer keyboards, and therefore ultimately why it was used in email addresses later on.

The pound's full name is the 'pound sterling', ^note  Also known as a quid denoting that a pound was originally a gold coin (called a sovereign^note (a now rare slang term for a pound is a "sov")) equal in value to one troy pound in weight of sterling silver. The "shilling" ^note which is descended from an Old English word meaning "to cut" or "separate" was originally a unit of account derived from it being a 1/20th "division" of the pound (and not because it was the price of a sheep or cow in Kent as is popularly believed.). Originally, a penny was 1/240th of a pound of sterling silver^note (to this day, a 'pennyweight' is an apothecary unit equal to 1/240th of a Troy pound, or 1/20th of a Troy ounce) – about 1.4 grams, which is worth about 80p as of November 2022. The gold sovereign was replaced by the paper £1 note during World War I, though it briefly returned to circulation from 1918 into the 1920's until banknotes fully replaced them. Notably, despite the sovereign no longer being intended for circulation, it - along with the half sovereign, rare double sovereign and even-rarer quintuple sovereign - saw a resumption of production in the latter half of the 20th century. The coins also survived decimalisation in 1971, and in the present day are made as collector's and bullion pieces, with face values of £1, 50p, £2 and £5, respectively. That being said, you would be pretty stupid to spend them for what they're worth in face value (it would cost you several hundred times that to buy them to begin with) instead of hanging on to them for their metal content and numismatic value.

Then you get onto the other coins:

• Farthing – one quarter of a penny (i.e. a 'fourthing', but pronounced with a soft th as in "farther"). It was not minted after 1956, and was not legal tender after 1960. Since a penny originally had roughly the buying power of one of today's pounds, the farthing was actually quite useful for most of its history. Note: "Third farthings" (one-twelfth of a penny) were minted for use in Malta, and "quarter farthings" (one-sixteenth of a penny, or 1/3840 of a pound) in Ceylon.
• Ha'penny/Halfpenny – yes, half a penny. Pronounced "haypnee" even when written in full.^note (The full version is the surname of a former EastEnders/Waterloo Road star, and of a current Welsh international rugby player.) The pre-decimal ha'penny was one inch in diameter. A decimal ha’penny (1/200th of a £) still existed after 1971's decimalisation, but was discontinued in 1984.
• Tuppence – 2d. Pronounced with the same vowel sounds as "buttons".
• Threepence – 3d. Pronounced to rhyme with the above, something like "thruppence". As mentioned in Good Omens above, the coin itself was often called a 'thrupenny bit', again pronounced "thrupnee". Alternatively pronounced with the vowel sound of 'oo' in 'look'.
• Groat – 4d. Name comes from grossus, Medieval Latin for "thick" or "great", and so named because these were about the same width as pennies but substantially thicker. Discontinued in the seventeenth century.^note Though the filming rights to our quoted novel, Good Omens, were reportedly sold to Terry Gilliam for a groat anyway.
• Sixpence – 6d. This small silver coin was known as a 'tanner'.
• Testoon - 1/- (1 shilling, or 12d, one-twentieth of a pound), also known as a bob, white hog, or 'og.
  • Between 1701 and 1825, when the currencies were unified, there was also an Irish shilling worth 13d (1/1), also known as a black hog.
• Florin – 2/- (two shillings, or 24d; one tenth of a pound). So named for its similarity in size and value to the Dutch gulden coin of the same era, which for complicated historical reasons was often called a "florin" and had the currency symbol 'f' or 'fl' (which continued to be the symbol for the Dutch guilder right up until its replacement by the euro in 2002). Also known as 'two bob', as a shilling was often known as a 'bob' (as in "worth a couple of bob"). This coin was introduced in 1849 as an experimental first stage in decimalising the currency - although this coin survived, nothing else happened for nearly 120 years.
• Half crown – 2/6 (two shillings sixpence, or 30d; one eighth of a pound).
  • Also called "half a dollar" because in the 1940s when US money arrived with the troops during World War II this was its approximate value.
• Crown – 5/- (five shillings; one quarter of a pound) - issued as a commemorative coin and rarely seen in circulation.
  • Also sometimes called a dollar, see above.
• Noble – 6/8 (six shillings and eight pence, or 80d; one third of a pound). Not produced after the 1460s, but mentioned in several of Shakespeare’s plays.
• Half sovereign - 10/- (ten shillings, or 120d; one half of a pound). Replaced in The Roaring '20s by the ten-bob note.
• Mark – 13/4 (thirteen shillings and four pence, or 160d; two thirds of a pound). Only ever used as a unit of account in some areas, and quite archaic even before decimalisation; it shared a root with and was similar in value to the German currency of the same name.
• Guinea – £1/1/- (one pound and one shilling, or 21s, or 252d). An oddity in that it represented a value long after it ceased to be a coin, which was named after the west African country where much of the gold used to make them was mined. Officially replaced by the pound coin in 1816, the value was still used for pricing purposes by professionals – the British love class: a tradesman would present his bill in pounds, a doctor or lawyer would charge you in guineas. Today, it remains in use in the names of 'Classic' horse races the 1,000 Guineas and 2,000 Guineas, although their prize funds are now much higher and also fixed in pounds. Decimalised to £1.05, it is also still used in the sale of livestock at auction, where the buyer pays guineas yet the seller receives the same number of pounds; the extra 5p per pound is traditionally the auctioneer's commission.
• Other older still denominations existed before the seventeenth century, of which the most impressive is the Triple Unite – £3 (three pounds, or sixty shillings), an exceedingly rare coin, nearly an ounce in weight, produced only in 1642-4 during the English Civil War.
• Also, especially during the Georgian era you would find "conder", "blacksmith" or "evasion" tokens - a bewildering array of pseudo-coins produced simply because there wasn't enough actual currency in circulation for the public's needs. As long as they didn't exactly match "regal" coinage, these tokens "evaded" counterfeiting laws; therefore you might pay with something that resembled a halfpenny, but had Shakespeare's profile replacing that of the monarch on the obverse, and the phrase "Bonny Isle" instead of "Britannia" on the reverse. Their closest equivalent in the USA are the "hard times" tokens of the 19th century.

A rather odd, half-hearted attempt at decimalisation was introduced in Victorian times when a large number of florins (two-bob bits) were minted, bearing the legend 'ONE FLORIN - ONE TENTH OF A POUND'. The design was hugely controversial, as, on the front, the queen's portrait was accompanied by the words Victoria Regina ('Queen Victoria') rather than the conventional Victoria Dei Gratia Regina ('Victoria, Queen by the Grace of God'). The "Godless Florins" were denounced by clergymen in much the same way that US dollars without 'In God We Trust' would be today, even though that motto is Newer Than They Think. However, two-shilling pieces were popular and continued to be minted. Modern coins carry the inscription Elizabeth II Dei Gratia Regina Fidei Defensatrix (usually abbreviated to ELIZABETH II D G REG F D on most coins, thought the £2 has more space, so there it's ELIZABETH II DEI GRA REG FID DEF), meaning 'Elizabeth II, by the grace of God, Queen and Defender of the Faith'. Following the Queen's death in September 2022, the inscription on future coins will change to Charles III Dei Gratia Rex Fidei Defensor, with "CHARLES III" replacing "ELIZABETH II" and "REG" replaced by "REX" on the abbreviated inscriptions.

References to pre-decimalisation currency will often say that a shilling was worth 5 pence. This is because when the changeover was effected, one old pound had to equal one new pound despite the former having 240 pence and the latter 100. This is because sterling was, and to an extent still is, a major reserve currency; messing with its value would have been too much of a headache for central banks.^note (As mentioned below, this is in contrast to the former sterling countries like Australia and New Zealand, where decimalisation had one pound equal two dollars, or ten shillings to a dollar: this let 1/-, 2/- and 5/- coins be easily swapped out for 10c, 20c and 50c respectively.) Therefore, all smaller denominations had to be converted in proportion to the pound. One old shilling (12d or old pence) was converted to 5 new pence^note (and no, 'new pence' is not pronounced "nuppence") and thereby remained one-twentieth of a pound. 'How many pence made up a shilling?' is therefore a common trick question in quizzes and the like. Note that this meant that one new penny was actually worth slightly more than two old pence, by 1/600th of a pound (between a farthing and a ha'penny). Post-decimalisation, the old shilling coins continued to be used for many years as 5p alongside their same-sized decimal replacements, as did florins for 10p. They finally went out of circulation in the 1990s when the size of 5p and 10p coins was reduced.

It's a general rule that anyone who was around before decimalisation will always insist that Old Money was far superior. This is partly attributable to Nostalgia Filter and association with the fact that the pound was much stronger then (for unrelated economic reasons) and bought more, but the case can be made that people were better at mental arithmetic when they had to wrestle with £.s.d. every day.^note (One thing in the old system's favour is the fact that 240 is one of those numbers that can be easily subdivided into almost any workable fraction imaginable. The human brain naturally thinks in fractions – even if that fraction is hundredths – so the smaller the denominator used, the more quickly a value can be understood.)

Suggested viewing: Pounds, shillings, and pence: a history of English coinage over on YouTube.

New Money

Great Britain switched to decimal currency on February 15, 1971. This was shortly after it began to (reluctantly) switch over to the metric system – incidentally, a process still not completed. Despite this, the unit of currency was not changed from the pound to the kilogram. (Rimshot)

British coins always have the current monarch's head in profile on the 'heads' (obverse) side – traditionally facing in the opposite direction to that of their predecessor. The design of the 'tails' (reverse) side varies depending on when the coin was minted. Current notes have Elizabeth II's portrait on one side and a building or person of historical significance on the other, as well as a metal 'counterfeit strip' embedded to prevent forgeries. New notes will be issued bearing the portrait of the current King, Charles III.

Since 2008 the tails sides of the 1p, 2p, 5p, 10p, 20p, and 50p coins each feature a different segment of the 'Royal Shield' (the escutcheon of the royal coat of arms); you can get a full(ish) view of the Shield by placing a complete set of coins together. The £1 has the whole Shield on it, while the £2 has some odd ringy-design. More detailed descriptions of the coins can be found on The Other Wiki.

For those that are interested the coins and notes used in the modern, decimal system of currency (pounds and pence) are:

• Coppers: Copper-coloured coins made from, well, copper alloys. More recent issues are made of iron plated with copper alloy, when the cost of making a solid copper coin began to exceed the actual value of the coin – new 'coppers' can be distinguished from old ones by the fact that they're magnetic. Both are round with smooth edges.
  • 1p – 18mm in diameter.
  • 2p – 25mm in diameter.
  • There was originally a 1/2p coin but it was withdrawn in 1984.
    • While the decimal ha'penny always read HALF PENNY, the 1p and 2p issued in 1971 (and several subsequent batches) bore the legend NEW PENNY and NEW PENCE respectively, before being changed in the 1990s for ONE PENNY and TWO PENCE. All the higher-denomination decimal coins also said 'New Pence' up until 1982, but the 1p and 2p are the only ones from that era that remain in circulation – the others have all changed their size since, so older ones are no longer around.
  • Coppers are often used as weights for dealing drugs, as their weights match the convention of selling drugs in power-of-two fractions of an ounce: a 2p coin weighs 7g (1/4oz), a 1p coin weighs 3.5g (1/8oz). The 1/2p coin weighed 1.75g (1/16 oz) and the accuracy of this size deal suffered when the coin was withdrawn and dealers moved to using digital scales which only indicated down to tenths of a gramme.

• Silver: Silver-coloured coins of varying shapes. Actually contain no silver (which would make them worth a lot more than their denominations) but consist of an alloy of 75% copper and 25% nickel.^note (So they're actually a lot more copper than the 'coppers' are.)
  • 5p – Slightly smaller than 1p coins. They have tiny indentations around the edge, also known as 'milled' edges.
  • 10p – Slightly smaller than 2p coins. They also have indentations.
  • 20p – Slightly larger than 1p coins, 7-sided with rounded corners and edges, deliberately designed as such to be able to roll. Introduced in 1982.
  • 50p – Like a 20p coin but a little larger than a 2p coin.
    • The 5p, 10p and 50p were reduced in size in 1990, 1992, and 1997 respectively. Previously the 5p was the size of today's 10p and the 10p and 50p were rather larger and heavier. This, as noted, is why you'll occasionally still find 1p and 2p coins as old as 1971 in your change, but not the other denominations.
    • It's a shame, because it was always interesting to find old one-shilling and two-shilling coins that continued to circulate as 5p and 10p respectively post-decimalisation (they were the same size).

• Pound Coins: Unlike USD, £1 and £2 denominations are in coin form ^note (the US does mint a brass one-dollar coin, but it hasn't caught on due to Congress/The Fed's refusal to axe the dollar bill. Canada has $1 and $2 coins, and no paper money in those denominations). A paper £1 existed for a time, but was phased out because they were always horrendously tatty. There are still £1 notes in Scotland.
  • £1 – As of March 2017, the pound coin has been replaced by a dodecagonal design "inspired" by the pre-decimal thrupenny bit, and is bimetallic like the £2 coin with a "silver" centre and "gold" ring. It was claimed that this would be more difficult to forge, with as many as 3% of old style pound coins in circulation allegedly being forgeries.
  • Old £1 - Round, golden coloured and slightly fatter than other coins. Has milled indentations and the Latin phrase DECUS ET TUTAMEN ('An ornament and a safeguard') around the edge. The phrase refers to this 'milling', those little grooves on the edges of coins. Milling coins was introduced by then-Royal Mint director Sir Isaac Newton as both a decoration and as a defence against the then-common practice of 'clipping'^note (carefully shaving off bits of precious metal from the edges of coins, keeping the shavings, and passing off the clipped coin as full value. Milling a coin makes it easy to spot if it has been clipped. Clipping was not only bad because it was dishonest, but because it debased the currency, which eventually led to unwanted inflation). Welsh-design coins use a different phrase, the Welsh PLEIDIOL WYF I'M GWLAD ('True am I to my country')^note A phrase in the lyrics of Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau, the Welsh national anthem; Scottish-design coins the Latin NEMO ME IMPUNE LACESSIT ('No one provokes me with impunity')^note (the motto of the Order of the Thistle, as well as three extant and several defunct Scottish regiments, as well as Canadian and South African regiments of Scottish descent. The use of the motto caused some fuss as some Scots were angry it used Latin rather than the Gaelic "Cha togar m' fhearg gun dìoladh". That’s right; not only does Scottish coinage carry a Badass Boast, but some people were sufficiently badass to scrap over what language it carried this boast in). The reverse design varies from year to year, with some designs being reused. Commonly-used designs were the coats of arms or emblems of the UK nations and their national plants. They were phased out in October 2017.
  • £2 – Consists of a "silver" part slightly smaller than a 1p coin and a gold "rim" which makes it about the size of a 50p, with milled edges, and the inscription STANDING ON THE SHOULDERS OF GIANTS around the edge. This is a double reference to the fact that the standard coin depicts technological progress on the back, and that this is a quote by Newton (see above). The £2 has more limited-edition year-specific runs than any other coin and a good percentage of those in circulation at any time will have unique tails designs and edge descriptions rather than the standard one.
  • £5 – Usually commemorative issues. They're legal tender but not in general circulation and unlikely to be accepted as payment. Occasionally the introduction of a regular £5 coin is proposed, but so far there isn't one.

Bank Notes – "Paper" money

• UK bank notes can be distinguished by colour, size, and whose portrait appears on the reverse side to the Queen (or, from mid-2024, the King). (Note that the date ranges below overlap, as they are the years when the notes involved were circulated.) Previously made from cotton paper, from 2016 polymer (plastic) bank notes were introduced after a public consultation found that the majority of people were in favour of them.
  • £5 – Blue or green ink (depending on when they were printed and who you ask). Portrait: The Duke of Wellington (1971-1991); George Stephenson, pioneering railway engineer (1990-2003); Elizabeth Fry, campaigner responsible for reforming the prison system (2002-2016); Winston Churchill (2016-, also the first fiver and bank note overall to be printed in polymer rather than paper).
  • £10 – Orange ink with a portrait of: Florence Nightingale, pioneer of modern nursing (1975-1994); Charles Dickens (1992-2003); Charles Darwin, discoverer of evolution (2000-2018); Jane Austen^note (chosen specifically to ensure that a bank note will still feature a prominent British woman – aside from the Queen – after the retirement of Elizabeth Fry from the £5 note.) (2017- ). As with the Churchill £5, the latter marked the introduction of plastic £10 notes.
  • £20 – Purple ink with a portrait of: William Shakespeare (1970-1993); Michael Faraday, scientist (1991-2001); Edward Elgar (1999-2010); Adam Smith, father of modern economics and hater of gamers' guts (2007-2020); JMW Turner, painter (2020–). This tends to be the largest denomination anyone will bother with. It is also the largest you'll normally get from an ATM. Following from £5 and £10 notes, the Turner notes are also plastic. Some paper notes were still in circulation until 2022, thanks to the COVID pandemic delaying the full rollout of plastic notes; paper £20 notes finally ceased to be legal tender in September 2022.
  • £50 – Red ink with a portrait of: Sir Christopher Wren, architect (1981-1996); Sir John Houblon, first governor of the Bank of England (1994-2014); Matthew Boulton and James Watt, steam engine engineers (2011-2021); Alan Turing, pioneering computer scientist (2021–). The last of the circulating Bank of England notes to be printed on paper; the Turing notes are plastic. Usually only issued from banks by request (typically to put in birthday cards). This is the largest denomination issued by the Bank of England – some Scottish and Northern Irish banks issue £100 notes, which are even rarer than £50s. Can be difficult to pass in some stores due to lacking in change (some expressly do not accept them because of this), and will often be subjected to additional scrutiny due to the commonness of forgeries.
    • £50 notes are also found in the pay packets of the increasingly few people who are paid in cash... or the pockets of those who for various reasons deal entirely in cash. Spend too many of them and you will attract adverse attention.
    • Also the easiest way to get a cash payout in a casino if you are lucky enough to win. Usually very large payouts can be made in bags of £2,500 made up of 50 x £50 (electronic note counters are generally set to batches of 50 to help cashiers count and balance the cash). This, too, will draw a certain amount of unwanted attention.
  • £100 - Scottish and Northern Irish banks issue £100 notes.
  • 'Giants' and 'Titans', notes of £1,000,000 and £100,000,000 respectively, also exist. However they are only used between banks or to back Scottish and Northern Irish Pounds and never enter circulation. Forging them would be a waste of time as anyone who isn't a bank who has one has to have stolen it. Apparently they resemble cheques more than regular bank notes, and the Titans are a foot wide.
  • It should also be noted that Scotland still has a few £1 notes in circulation, and has its own note designs, several for each denomination. (The three big Scottish banks – Bank of Scotland, Royal Bank of Scotland, and Clydesdale Bank – are all entitled to issue notes under Scots law. The Bank of Scotland notes have pictures of Sir Walter Scott, who petitioned for Scotland to keep its banknotes in 1826.)
    • This can lead to amusing situations such as when an Englishman took his mobile sales stand up to an event in Scotland and on being given a £1 note for a 50p item gave £4.50 change. This wasn't even his first trip to Scotland.
  • Three Northern Irish banks - Bank of Ireland, Danske Bank and Ulster Bank - are all entitled to issue notes for use in Northern Ireland.
  • The notes can be distinguished by touch (helpful for blind people and anyone quickly rummaging in their wallet as well as giving automated note counting or deposit machines in banks something to go on) because they get progressively slightly larger as the denomination increases. This also had (in the paper days) the helpful side effect of preventing counterfeiters from bleaching lower denomination notes to print higher ones on.

Speaking of Scottish and Northern Irish notes, they generally are accepted tender in England and Wales but some shops refuse to take them because their unfamiliarity makes it easier to pass off a forgery as genuine.^note In fact, Scottish and Northern Irish notes are not legal tender anywhere. However, a Scottish court ruled that Scottish notes have to be accepted in settlement of a debt in Scotland as they are "generally accepted as money" there. The Channel Islands, The Isle of Man, Gibraltar, The Falkland Islands and other Crown Dominions also issue sterling notes and coinage^note (technically, they are not sterling, buta separate set of currencies with a fixed one-to-one exchange rate and a ban on Bureau-de-change charging a fee to change between them, but the coins and notes are physically the same denominations, exactly the same values, and freely exchangeable, so in practical terms who cares?)... which are viewed with even greater suspicion by till operators in England and Wales (rightly, as they are not legal tender there). The coins look similar enough to pass without comment, but good luck with the notes.

Interestingly, it hasn't been unknown for small American coins to slip into circulation in Britain, because the cent, dime and nickel, at least superficially, resemble the 1p, 5p and 10p coins in terms of size and colour. Or perhaps "color". The biggest thing that catches them out is their weight - they are a little bit lighter. Similarly, 1-euro coins have been known to slip into circulation in the UK because of their superficial resemblance to the new £1 coin, even though the 1-euro is round and the £1 dodecagonal.

As a footnote, the plural "pence" is used to refer to a given sum of money and "pennies" to refer to a given number of individual 1p coins. "Pee" as in the letter p, as noted in the page quote, is used as a singular and a plural. Also keep in mind that five pound notes and ten pound notes are known as "fiver(s)" and "tenner(s)" respectively, but twenty and fifty pound notes are just called "twent(y/ies)" and "fift(y/ies)".

There are some money slang terms:

• "Quid" – from the Latin phrase quid pro quo (something in exchange for something else), "quid" is slang for a pound, or multiples thereof. In the nineteenth century, confusingly, it was slang for a guinea.
• "Pavarotti" – tenner (Because Luciano Pavarotti was a tenor, get it?)
• "Score" - £20
• "Pony" – £25 (As in "stick a pony in your pocket")
• "Ton" - £100 (as in 'tundred...sort of)
• "Bottle" or "Tube" (of glue, to rhyme with two) – £200
• "Monkey" – £500
• "Bar"/"Grand" – £1000 (use varies by region)
• The term "shrapnel" is often used to refer to loose change, especially large quantities of small-denomination coins.

Ireland

The Irish Free State/Irish Republic also used old money from its formation (1922) to 1971, except they used a 10-shilling coin instead of a crown (5/-), and did not have a tuppence coin either. Although the Free State became independent in 1922, it had other things on its mind and didn’t get round to issuing its own coins until 1928. As the Irish and British Pounds had the same value (until 1979), coins were the same size and weight as their British equivalent when they were first issued, but did not change if the British equivalent was modified - the Irish 3d was a small round silver coin throughout its existence, although the British stopped issuing such a coin after 1945 and replaced it with a brass dodecagonal coin first issued in 1937. The monarch's image was replaced with a harp and the country’s name (“Saorstát Éireann”, (“Irish Free State”) until 1936, and “Éire”, (“Ireland”) after the adoption of the new Constitution in 1937). Rather than the typical images of monarchs or heraldry, the reverse featured common and familiar animals with modern design sensibilities, designed by a Yorkshireman, Percy Metcalfe. (Charmingly, the animals for the smallest denominations were chosen because they would be the most familiar to children, who were most likely to be given a penny or ha'penny by an adult.) Another oddity is that although officially the harp is on the obverse ("front") side replacing the actual monarch's head, and the animal on the reverse, the harp side is considered "tails" when flipping - "head or harp" is almost as common a phrase as "heads or tails".

The coins gave their value in the Irish language:

• ¼ d. – feoirling (farthing, featured a woodcock)
• ½ d. – leath phingin (ha'penny, featured a sow and banbhs)
• 1 d. – pingin (penny, featured a hen and chicks)
• 3 d. – leath-reul (threepence, featured a hare)
• 6 d. – reul (sixpence, featured a wolfhound)
• 1 s. – scilling (shilling, featured a bull)
• 2 s. – flóirín (florin, featured a salmon)
• 2 s./6 d. – leath choróin (half-crown, featured a horse)
• 10 s. – deich scilling (ten shillings: issued 1966, 83.5% silver, unpopular and mostly withdrawn, featured the death of Cúchulainn)

Notes were 10 s., £1, £5, £10, £20, £50, £100.

Irish New Money

The Irish decimal pound was introduced in 1971, with ½ p, 1p, 2p, 5p, 10p and 50p coins the same size as their British equivalents. The ha'penny was withdrawn in 1985, and the 20p issued in 1986. Notes were £1 (featuring the legendary Queen Medb), £5 (John Scotus Eirugena), £10 (Jonathan Swift), £20 (William Butler Yeats), £50 (Turlough O'Carolan). The old £100 note remained in circulation. Following the breaking of the 1:1 link between the Irish and British Pounds in 1979, subsequently issued denominations were completely different in appearance - the 20p coin was a large round brass-coloured coin that makes a beautiful shiiinnng noise when flipped, and the £1 was a large thin silver-coloured coin with a distinct “clink”ing sound. The 5p and 10p coins were reduced in size in the 1990s (though in a different way from their British equivalents), but the 50p remained the same size until replaced by the Euro.

In 1990 a pound coin^note  (Often known as the "Punt": a slang term originating from the Gaelic "punt" meaning "Pound" and used both for the Irish pound as a currency system, and the physical £1 coin) was introduced, and the notes became:

• £5 – brown – Catherine McAuley
• £10 – green – James Joyce
• £20 – purple – Daniel O'Connell
• £50 – grey – Douglas Hyde
• £100 – red – Charles Stewart Parnell

On New Year's Day 2002, the Irish pound was replaced by the euro (issued as 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50 cent, €1 and €2 coins, and notes of €5, €10, €20, €50, €100, €200 and €500 (the last three note denominations are rarely circulated). The slang term "quid", also long used in Ireland to refer to first British and then Irish pounds, is now used for the euro.

• Metrication also began in Ireland in the 1970s, so sometimes imperial units are jokingly referred to as "old money", e.g. comparing speed limits between kilometres and miles per hour (which changed over in 2005).
  • While Britain still uses imperial for distances, this kind of jokey meaning is sometimes used there for Fahrenheit/Celsius or similar.

Australia, New Zealand and South Africa

Suggested viewing: NFSA film about Australian Decimalization, on YouTube.

The Southern Hemisphere used old money too! When originally settled, the colonies just used British pounds, but gradually introduced their own local currencies imaginatively named the Pound which were essentially equal to the Pound Sterling. Since they weren't tied so closely with the notion of the pound, and because their currencies were not significant world reserve currencies that would cause major headaches if they changed the value of the basic unit of account, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa decided to decimalize in a different way to the UK and Ireland by making 10 shillings equal to the new currency: ten South African shillings became one rand in 14 February 1961; ten Australian shillings became one Australian dollar on 14 February 1966; and ten New Zealand shillings became one New Zealand dollar on 10 July 1967. Their values have fluctuated since, and they all have lost their 1c and 2c coins due to inflation making them nearly worthless. New Zealand also lost its 5c coin in 2006, and South Africa phased that denomination out in 2012.

Australian Coins All coins carry the image of Queen Elizabeth II on the 'heads' side, with future issues to replace the late Queen's image with that of King Charles III.

Copper The now discontinued 1 and 2 cent coins made primarily of... copper.

• 1c: Carried the image of the feather-tailed glider
• 2c: Carried the image of the frill necked lizard

Silver Silver coloured, hence the name but they are in fact made of an alloy that's 75% copper and 25% nickel, with one notable exception:

• 5c: Carries a picture of an echidna
• 10c: Carries a picture of a Superb Lyrebird
• 20c: Normally carries a picture of a platypus but there are numerous special commemorative versions minted. Until New Zealand reduced the size of its 20c coin in 2006, it was easily mixed up with the New Zealand 20c coin to the point where some vending machines didn't discriminate between the two.
• 50c: Rather than a circle it's a twelve sided shape normally stamped with the Australian coat of arms but has an even longer history of commemorative versions than the 20c coin.
  • There was a circular version of the 50c coin minted in 1966 and it's technically still legal tender. However you'd be a fool to use it as such because it's 80% silver which makes it worth about ten times its face value not even counting its limited run.

Gold In 1984 the old one dollar note was phased out and replaced by a coin made of 92% copper, 6% aluminium and 2% nickel which results in a gold coloured alloy. The same was done again with the two-dollar note in 1988. Both versions have had commemorative versions made since their introduction, though only a few for the $2 coin.

• $1: Has seven kangaroos on its default form
• $2: The only coin to have a human on the 'tails' side: an aboriginal elder holding a spear.

Australian Notes

Originally using paper notes in 1988 a special commemorative ten dollar note for the bicentennial of the landing of the First Fleet was issued made from a form of flexible plastic and while there were some initial problems it was eventually decided to change all notes to this form. In addition to the plastic being much harder to copy they were also able to include new security features such as a transparent window. To the general public one of the more popular results of the change was that your money would no longer be reduced to a pulpy mess if it accidentally went through the wash. The colour coding from the old paper series was kept but while the old notes had gotten both taller and wider with increasing value to aid in identification by the blind the new notes were of a uniform height and only the width changed. Starting in 2016 a new series with additional security features such as a top to bottom transparent bar have started being issued but they share the same design scheme as the previous series described below.

• $5: Pinky/purple in colour with a bust of Queen Elizabeth II on one side and an image of Parliament house in Canberra on the other. King Charles III will not appear on future notes; the next design will feature images from indigenous culture and history, with indigenous leaders consulted on the final design. No timeline has been set for these new notes.
• $10: Blue with Banjo Paterson on one side and Dame Mary Gilmore on the other. The side with Paterson has The Man From Snowy River on the microprint in the background.
  • Fun fact: Prior to Gilmore's face being on the tenner, Francis Greenway's head was on the bill, making him the only convicted forger to be on a banknote.
• $20: Red/Orange with Mary Reibey on one side and Reverend John Flynn on the other.
• $50: Yellow with David Unaipon on one side and Edith Cowan on the other.
  • The $20 and $50 dollar notes are the default denominations found in ATMs. Awkward if only need a small amount.
• $100: Green and the highest denomination note made with Dame Nellie Melba on one side and Sir John Monash on the other

In terms of slang, Australia shares the term "grand" meaning a thousand dollars and "shrapnel" to mean general loose coinage with the UK.

North America

Yes, the United States and Canada once had this kind of money, too. However, they got rid of it over a century before the other countries on the same standard.

When British colonists started arriving in the New World, they at first continued to use the currency of the old country – i.e. the pound sterling. However, British monetary policy and the vagaries of geography and trade meant that it was quite difficult to get your hands on British coins in North America, and the colonists started to turn elsewhere for coinage. As it happened, the Spanish had a gigantic mint in Mexico City pumping out 8-réal coins (called "pieces of eight" for their value and the ability to cut them up into eight one-réal "bits") of Mexican and South American silver, which were commonly used in international trade. Eventually, these "Spanish dollars" – so-called because they were made to the specifications of the Central European Joachimsthaler, or thaler for short, which were popular across Continental Europe and had been brought to Spain by the Habsburgs – became the standard currency in pre-Revolutionary British North America. As a result, the newly-independent United States adopted the dollar as its unit of currency, divided ingeniously into 100 cents from the very beginning at the suggestion of Thomas Jefferson.^note  (the memory of the old Spanish dollar lingered on in Wall Street, which two hundred years after the establishment of a decimalized currency was still quoting stock prices to the nearest 1/8th of a dollar. {This wasn't for reasons of sentimentality and antiquarianism, of course; it was done to protect stockbrokers' commissions and trading profits from competition – if the minimum size possible is $0.125, your rival firms can't lure away your clients by offering to accept only $0.10. This cozy cartel broke down in the late 1990s, when stocks began to be valued in increments of 1/64th of a dollar and even 1/256th of a dollar. Eventually, sanity prevailed, and US stock prices are now quoted to the nearest cent}. The memory also lingers on in the notion of a quarter being worth "two bits". Yes, as in "Shave And A Haircut".) These silver Spanish dollars weighed about 1.75 troy ounces while the pound sterling was, well [a gold coin equal in value to] a troy pound of sterling silver, or 12 troy ounces. You can see the reason for the (former) vast discrepancy between pounds and dollars – the dollar was closer in value to a half-crown than a pound. For further detail, see the article on American Money.

This put Canada in a bit of a bind. Since Canada was still British, the War Office (then in charge of managing Britain's colonies) wanted Canada to continue to use the pound sterling as the basis of its currency, but most Canadians, realizing the benefits of easy trade with their far more populous southern neighbour, wanted to assimilate to the American unit. For a while, a native Canadian pound was adopted, worth slightly less than the sterling for an easier-to-handle exchange rate with the dollar, namely $4 to the pound. As an interesting sidenote: the ha'penny was not issued in English-speaking Upper Canada, but it was issued in French-speaking Lower Canada, where it was known as the sou^note Which is still the Quebec French nickname for a Canadian cent. Also, because at an exchange rate of $4 to £1, $0.25 was exactly 15 pence (because when $4=£1, then $1=5s=60d, so $0.25=15d), French-speakers in Quebec came to call the ubiquitous American quarter dollars trente sous ("thirty sous"), and the nickname has stuck for subsequent Canadian and American 25-cent pieces, even though the word sou came to mean "cent" in other contexts. after a similarly low-valued French coin.^note Which, to add a delightful extra layer of complexity, derived its name from the ancient solidus that the Brits considered equivalent to the shilling. However, this situation proved to be untenable, and in 1857 the Province of Canada adopted an American-based decimal currency unit, although the British gold sovereign remained legal tender at a value of $4.86 2/3 (which remained true until the mid 1990s – at which point if you used a gold sovereign at face value anyway, you were either desperate or an idiot). When Confederation occurred ten years later, it was this currency that became the Canadian dollar of today.

If you made it through all that, you have probably already realized that this is not to be confused with the other kind of Old Money, the opposite of the Nouveau Riche.

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