Talk:Guinea (British coin)
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I don't think the practice of quoting prices in guineas completely disappeared with decimalisation. I was billed in guineas by a surgeon in Scotland in 1982. --scruss 22:44, 19 Jun 2005 (UTC)
What little Napoleon or tabloid journalist says "25 millimetres" was the diameter of the coin over 120 years before the Metric System? Looks like they'd reference it to the inch. Use either an exact measurement or state that it's an approximation for the immeasurate. --Sobolewski 18:41, 1 August 2005 (UTC)
[edit] Official name?
this article mentions several times that "guinea" was not an official name for the coins described here. was there a single official name for the guineas produced under the various monarchs, or did the name vary? jchristopher 10:27, 23 April 2007 (UTC)
- Great question! Anyone? Chris 05:10, 30 September 2007 (UTC)
I was just about to ask the same thing; what was the coin called officially? The article states that the name is derived from the origin of the gold used to make the coin which increased in price "during the reign of Charles II". If Charlie 2 died in 1685 then there is a 22 year period where the name "Guinea" came about. But what was it called in the intervening period?
Further to that, why was it even commissioned in the first place? Was there some pressing need for high-denomination coinage or was it simply an exercise in royal vanity?
Random Dude. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 60.242.175.79 (talk) 04:38, 21 November 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Addition?
My teacher (who is in fact british) says that the guinea was only used by the upper classes. Should this be added, or do I need to find a book or website reference that claims the same thing? Yugiohguy1 (talk) 16:51, 4 April 2008 (UTC) The guinea was not one pound sterning. A guinea was worth 21 shillings. A pound was worth twenty shillings. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.34.133.143 (talk) 19:19, 2 September 2009 (UTC)
[edit] Average gold content units?
Do the average gold content values of "0.9100" and "0.9094" refer to the percent pure gold by weight? E.g., 91 percent or 90.94 percent pure gold? As a novice on this topic, it would have helped me to have that better defined or explained. Bill_Starr (talk) 19:38, 13 January 2010 (UTC)
- That's a subtle question, and I don't know the answer, except that the guinea was claimed to be minted in 22 carat gold. If you simply divide 22 by 24, you get 91.67 per cent. Supposing "0.9100" and/or "0.9094" is a correct figure, then you need to get to the true meaning of "22-carat gold". Clearly, the different ratios of gold by weight and gold by volume will vary, depending on what other metal the gold is alloyed with. Silver, copper, nickel, platinum and zinc have all been used for alloying gold at different times, but I believe the traditional metal used as an alloy in gold coins was silver. Moonraker2 (talk) 09:49, 14 January 2010 (UTC)
You're right to question it. In Science pure numbers are also known as dimensionless, because they have no units but are generally just ratios (so the units cancel). Gold content is not dimensionless. the units would have to be units of weight or volume. The numbers like 0.9100 are dimensionless because they are describing the ratio of the weight of the gold in the coin to the weight of the coin, so the 'grams' cancel. 0.9167 = 7.7 grams/8.4 grams, for example. The writer confused 'content' with 'purity.' — Preceding unsigned comment added by Br77rino (talk • contribs) 21:07, 7 September 2011 (UTC)
