£sd
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£sd (sometimes pronounced, and occasionally written, L.s.d.) was the popular name for the pre-decimal currencies (sterling) used in the United Kingdom and in most of the British Empire. This abbreviation meant “pounds, shillings, and pence”, and was usually pronounced that way, having originated from the Latin words “librae, solidi, denarii”. [1] Under this system, there were 12d (12 pence) in a shilling and 20s (20 shillings) in a pound, making 240d in a pound. The penny (1d) was (until 1960) further divided into four farthings.
The advantage of such a system was its use in mental arithmetic, as it afforded many factors and hence fractions of a pound such as tenths, eighths, sixths and even sevenths if the guinea of 21 shillings was used. When dealing with items in dozens, multiplication and division are straightforward; for example, if a dozen eggs cost four shillings, then each egg was four pence.
As countries became independent from the UK, some (like the United States) abandoned the £sd system quickly, while others (like Australia) retained it almost as long as Britain itself. Still others, notably Ireland, decimalised only when Britain did. Britain abandoned the old penny on Decimal Day, February 15, 1971, when one pound sterling became divided into 100 new pence. The shilling was replaced by a 5 pence coin worth one twentieth of a pound.
For much of the twentieth century, £sd was the monetary system of most of the Commonwealth countries, the major exception being Canada. Historically, similar systems based on Roman coinage were used elsewhere; e.g., the division of the Livre tournois in France and other pre decimal currencies such as Spain, which had 20 Maravedis to 1 Real and 20 Reals to 1 Duro or 5 pesetas[2].
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[edit] Writing conventions
In writing, there were several conventions for representing amounts of money in pounds, shillings and pence:
£2.3s.6d. (two pounds, three shillings and sixpence)
1/- (one shilling, colloquially 'a bob')
11d. (elevenpence)
11⁄2d (a penny halfpenny, three halfpence – note that the "lf" in halfpenny/halfpence was always silent - they were pronounced 'haypenny' and 'haypence' – hence the occasional spellings "ha'penny" and "ha'pence")
2/- (two shillings, or one florin, colloquially 'two bob')
2/6 (two shillings and six pence, usually pronounced as "two-and-six" or "half a crown")
4s.3d. ("four-and-threepence", the latter word pronounced 'thruppence', 'threppence' or 'throopence', -oo- as in 'foot')
5s. (five shillings, one crown, five bob, a dollar)
£1.10s.- (one pound, ten shillings; one pound ten, thirty bob)
£1/19/113⁄4d. (one pound, nineteen shillings and elevenpence three farthings; an odd price)
£14.8s.2d (fourteen pounds, eight shillings and twopence – pronounced 'tuppence' – in columns of figures)
Halfpennies and farthings (quarter of a penny) were represented by the appropriate symbol after the whole pence.
A convention frequently used in retail pricing was to list prices over one pound all in shillings, rather than in pounds and shillings; for example, £4-18-0 would be written as 98/- (£4.90 in decimal currency).
Sometimes prices of luxury goods and furniture were expressed by merchants in guineas, even though the guinea coin had not been struck since 1799. A guinea was twenty-one shillings (£1.05 in decimal currency). Traditionally, certain professionals like lawyers and art dealers quoted prices in guineas. Many British horse races still quote their prize funds in guineas - such as the 1,000 Guineas at Newmarket Racecourse.
[edit] In popular culture
The currency of Lancre, a kingdom in the fictional world of Discworld is a parody of the L.S.D system,[citation needed] as is the currency in the "wizarding world" of Harry Potter.[3]
Lysergic acid diethylamide was sometimes called “pounds, shillings and pence” during the 1960s, because of the abbreviation LSD.[4] The English rock group The Pretty Things released a 1966 single entitled "£.s.d." that highlighted the double entendre.[5]
[edit] See also
- Decimal Day for decimalisation in the UK and Ireland
- Decimalisation, for international decimalisation information.
[edit] References
- ^ C.H.V. Sutherland (1973): English Coinage 600-1900 ISBN 0 7134 0731 X p.10
- ^ Walkingame, Francis (1874), The Tutor's Assistant, p. 96
- ^ "Money in Harry Potter - Economic expert.com". http://www.economicexpert.com/a/Money:in:Harry:Potter.htm.
- ^ Dickson, Paul (1998). Slang: The Authoritative Topic-By-Topic Dictionary of American Lingoes from All Walks of Life. Pocket Books. p. 134.
- ^ http://www.theprettythings.com/disco.html The Pretty Things discography
