Squid vs. Pound, vs. Shilling...
 

okay, so if a Quid = a pound, then what are the values of a;<BR><BR>shilling<BR>pence and etc...

pence is essentially a penny (equals approx 1.5 cents American)<BR>a shilling= 10 pence (or 10 cents) <BR>hapenny (1/2 cent)<BR>

Shillings became obsolete in the 70s when Britain "went decimal". It was 12 old pence (1/20 of a pound). Shilling coins then became 5 new pence (still 1/20 of a pound). It was never 10 of anything. The word is hardly used now, except in the phrase "pounds, shillings and pence".<BR><BR>A penny is 1/100 of a GBP.<BR><BR>Groats, farthings, sixpences, thruppenny bits, florins and half crowns have also disappeared into the great counting house in the sky.

OK so what is currently being used?<BR><BR>Pound<BR>Pence (1/100 pound)<BR><BR>Are there parts of a pound? 1/2 pound?<BR>

No, just pounds and pence. Makes life a lot simpler.

The coins in use in the UK are: 2 pounds, 1 pound, 50 pence, 20 pence, 10 pence, 5 pence, 1 penny. Also, many people simply say "pee" instead of pence, as in "fifty pee".

Kathy don't leave the poor old two pence out

...especially as it's the best for sticking in parking meters, jamming them.

And don't forget the Guinea, especially if you're dealing with race horses or other beasties. (21 shillings, now &pound;1.05 I presume.) Aren't Guineas still used in antiques or some other fields?

there must be some more humourous answers out there!

Ever obedient, I offer a few further thoughts. In the eighth century Charlemagne sorted out a coinage, 12 pence to a shilling, 20 shillings to a pound, and later 21 shillings to a guinea, and in the ninth England (and for all I know Scotland: did the Welsh have coins then ?) took on Carolingian coinage as a sign of early interest in the Common Market. The perfidious French pulled the chair from under us by going decimal in the French revolution -- and I presume you know what that unfortunate movement led to ?<BR><BR>The great coin that we have lost is the crown, which in Britain a century ago represented five shillings or 25 new pence. Two hundred years ago there were crown coins in Iberia, Scandinavia, the German states, and the Hapsburg lands, they were the current coin in many of those parts two years ago, and there are still crowns in such spots with a regard for history as Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Croatia, the Czech republic, Estonia, and Slovakia ? not all of which are monarchies. Of course, the European Union should have called their coins crowns, but under the malign influence of republicans (French, some of them, I fear) the Union invented a strange new word.<BR><BR>The squid deserves special mention. It is the slang term for a small gold coin with eight sides, issued by the Bourbons of Naples, and properly called the Octopus. It is now rare.<BR><BR>Ben Haines, London<BR>