Motor-vehicle maintenance & modification is not my only hobby!
From an early age, years before I held a driving licence, I developed interests in photography, aircraft and collecting coins of the British Commonwealth, Colonies, Protectorates & Mandates, which include three overseas territories (i.e. Australia, Malta & New Zealand) that manufactured and/or assembled Triumph Toledos & Dolomites.
For those of you too young to remember pre-1971, British & British Colonial currency;
NOT 100 new pennies = 1 pound Sterling, here is what we old folk and even more ancient folk dealt with:
1 guinea = 21 shillings (a denomination commonly used by tailors and horse traders)
1 pound / sovereign = 4 crowns = 8 half-crowns = 10 florins = 20 shillings = 40 sixpences = 60 fourpences (i.e. groat) = 80 threepences = 120 twopences (i.e. tuppence) = 240 pennies = 480 half-pennies = 960 farthings = 1,920 half-farthings = 2,880 third-farthings (only in Malta)
1 crown = 5 shillings
1 half-crown = 2½ shillings
1 florin = 2 shillings
1 shilling (i.e. bob or bawbe) = 12 pennies
1 sixpence (i.e. tanner) = 6 pennies
1 fourpence (i.e. groat) = 4 pennies
1 thruppence = 3 pennies
1 tuppence = 2 pennies
1 penny = 4 farthings
If any of you are thinking that a
farthing equal to 1/960th of a pound was so long ago, they are not worth mentioning, keep in mind that the last ones were minted in 1956, which is barely 67 years ago!
Even as late as 1957,
one-tenth penny coins were still being minted for British West Africa; being equivalent to
1/2400 of a pound. Somewhere in my collection, I think I have a 1936 British West Africa one-tenth penny coin of Edward VIII.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_West_Africa
https://onlinecoin.club/Coins/CoinType/ ... nth_Penny/
https://onlinecoin.club/Coins/CoinType/ ... ward_VIII/
If you are thinking that pre-1971, mainland British coinage is complicated, just wait until you examine the pre-1971 coinage of Jersey, Guernsey, Isle of Man and Gibraltar!
ttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pound_sterling
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jersey_pound
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guernsey_pound
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manx_pound
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gibraltar_pound
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falkland_Islands_pound
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Helena_pound
The following two links will give further food for thought; especially how vast and influential the British Empire was.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category: ... ish_Empire
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category: ... of_Nations
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Regards.
Nigel A. Skeet
Independent tutor of mathematics, physics, technology & engineering, for secondary, tertiary, further & higher education.
https://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=308177758
Upgraded 1974 Triumph Toledo 1300 (Toledo / Dolomite HL / Sprint hybrid)
Onetime member + magazine editor & technical editor of Volkswagen Type 2 Owners' Club