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

[liv]

If I had a pound for every time
See, inflation strikes again! I'm sure that phrase used to be if I had a penny for every time...

I think that most people who say they 'don't like SF' mean they don't like Clarke, Asimov and Bradbury. You have more sophistication than that (one would hope so, really). But lots of people make a living out of arguing what counts as SF; try this discussion in coalescent's journal. It's kind of an obsession of his, that's just the most recent example, and he specifically mentions 1984. But it gives you a flavour of the kind of debate that can go on.