LSD

[lethargic_man]

Why did names for amounts of money change when they decimalised it? I can see why "shilling" dropped out of usage, along with the likes of "bob", "tanner", "crown", "sovereign", "dollar" (for 5/-), "florin"^*, and so forth. But why did the term for "two pence" (the amount, not the coin) change from "tuppence" to "2p"? Perhaps it was just so you could tell whether someone was referring to old currency or new. If so, it seems a bit of a shame; the term "fippence" could have come into its own, now there was a coin that actually had that value...

* Quaestio: Did people continue using this term, given that the coin remained in circulation as a 10p piece for many years?

Comments

Re: LSD

[lethargic-man.livejournal.com]

A shilling is defined as a twentieth of a pound. So "bob" does then both mean a shilling and 5p in decimal currency.

I have fun writing out cheques for "X pounds, no shillings and no pence". I've never done that for non-integral numbers of pounds, though; I'm sure it would confuse bank clerks. (Likewise cheques for amounts in guineas.)

[liv]

I know a guy who writes cheques in guineas as a way of giving a tip for good service. Since he gets away with this (and gets the extra 5% deducted from his account when the cheque is cashed) it would seem that guineas still have meaning, even if there is no such physical coin.

You write 'no shillings' on cheques? That's so cute!

Re: LSD

[lethargic-man.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, guineas certainly still exist. The shnoddering for aliyōs on Simchas Tōrāh (or weekly, in places like Newcastle) is still done in guineas -- have a listen next time you're there!

Re: LSD

[liv]

The shnoddering for aliyōs on Simchas Tōrāh (or weekly, in places like Newcastle) is still done in guineas
Tell me you're joking?! If you said that to get a reaction out of me you certainly succeeded; I nearly fell out of my chair! You can't actually be telling me that your people go about publicly auctioning mitzvot to the highest bidder? Doing it in guineas is just amusing, but actually doing it in the first place... woah.

have a listen next time you're there
You mean they do it on shabbat as well?! I'm amazed I didn't notice before (though admittedly, last time I was in Newcastle, I was trying to get through all my davening the gaps between aliyot, which would be why I wasn't concentrating at those times).

It's lucky you've told me this, cos if I'd seen it happening without warning I'd quite probably have wanted to point and go "Aargh! Freaks!"

Re: LSD

[lethargic-man.livejournal.com]

No, they don't auction them to the highest bidder but it's expected that someone given an עליה makes a donation, which is then announced in the מי שברך. It's acceptable merely to say מתנה לבית הכנסת (gift to the shul), though.

(And I must find out the proper Unicode character for a right-to-left space, because using a left-to-right one is completely buggering up my word flow.)