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1905 British currency adding machine - GIF
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But, there's no ring for guineas, crowns, half crowns, florins, sixpences, threepences, halfpennies, and farthings. This is what happens when your money system is as poorly designed as your measurement system.
The first time I visited the UK the old system was still in use. When I paid for something I carefully counted my change. Many times it was wrong. At first I thought it was simply the natives taking advantage of an American but later I realized that the error was as often in my favor as it was against. Apparently the system was as confusing for them as it was for me.
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In 1966 Australia converted to metric currency (dollars and cents) and the conversions were published - one pence equated to a cent, a florin to 20c, etc. Problem was a florin was worth 24p, so some smart cookies converted their savings to pence, then converted the p to c, and then back up to dollars - didn't take long for the government and banks to stop that, but it shows how hard it was to do a conversion easily and correctly.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
mklotz
But, there's no ring for guineas, crowns, half crowns, florins, sixpences, threepences, halfpennies, and farthings. This is what happens when your money system is as poorly designed as your measurement system.
The first time I visited the UK the old system was still in use. When I paid for something I carefully counted my change. Many times it was wrong. At first I thought it was simply the natives taking advantage of an American but later I realized that the error was as often in my favor as it was against. Apparently the system was as confusing for them as it was for me.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by
desbromilow
In 1966 Australia converted to metric currency (dollars and cents) and the conversions were published - one pence equated to a cent, a florin to 20c, etc. Problem was a florin was worth 24p, so some smart cookies converted their savings to pence, then converted the p to c, and then back up to dollars - didn't take long for the government and banks to stop that, but it shows how hard it was to do a conversion easily and correctly.
A bottom-up conversion (1 d = 1 c) seems wrong. The fundamental unit of currency was the pound, not the pence.
If they had used a top-down conversion starting with 1 £ = 1 $, then a florin (0.1 £) would have become 10 cents.
How did the British do it when they converted?
(Incidentally, you didn't convert to "metric" currency, you converted to "decimal" currency.)