Seriously thoughtful Decimal Currency in Britain

[TGS]

Even though the actual weights of some things have changed the old names are sometimes still used. My favourite tobacconist will sell me an ounce of tobacco - what I will get is 25 grams, he knows that, I know that, but I still ask for an ounce and he still serves me. Isn't milk and beer still available in pints as well?

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by TGS

Even though the actual weights of some things have changed the old names are sometimes still used. My favourite tobacconist will sell me an ounce of tobacco - what I will get is 25 grams, he knows that, I know that, but I still ask for an ounce and he still serves me. Isn't milk and beer still available in pints as well?

Milk, beer, and blood are still measured in pints .

There was an interesting radio programme on BBC Radio 4 yesterday about the events leading up to decimalisation, and the impact it had on society. Well worth a listen:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode..._in_Old_Money/

[kindlekitten]

Originally Posted by HarryT

No, all weather forecasting is in Celsius. Occasionally a presenter might give a Fahrenheit equivalent, but the actual forecast is always C.

I do believe that was a joke

[TGS]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Milk, beer, and blood are still measured in pints .

There was an interesting radio programme on BBC Radio 4 yesterday about the events leading up to decimalisation, and the impact it had on society. Well worth a listen:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode..._in_Old_Money/

Thanks for the link Harry - heard it live, one of the joys of internet radio is to be able to get Radio 4 and Radio 3 wherever I am!

[astra]

Originally Posted by chamekke

I've heard that the UK has established an interesting new tradition in weather reporting of using Celsius for colder temperatures and Fahrenheit for hot ones...

They report temperature in both Celsius and Fahrenheit. At least on BBC radio.

[Bilbo1967]

Originally Posted by chamekke

I've heard that the UK has established an interesting new tradition in weather reporting of using Celsius for colder temperatures and Fahrenheit for hot ones...

Not so much in reporting, but people do certainly speak to each other along those lines.

For example, if it's hot people will say something like, "Whew, it's hot, it must be 90 degrees!" (Fahrenheit). If it's cold, they'll say, "Brrr, it must be zero degrees today" (Celcius).

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Bilbo1967

Not so much in reporting, but people do certainly speak to each other along those lines.

For example, if it's hot people will say something like, "Whew, it's hot, it must be 90 degrees!" (Fahrenheit). If it's cold, they'll say, "Brrr, it must be zero degrees today" (Celcius).

I think that's happening less today, though, than it did 10 years ago. 10 years ago I had no "feel" for temperatures in Celsius, having grown up with Fahrenheit, but now I do.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by kindlekitten

I do believe that was a joke

No, I don't think it was, because it's true. Very often people WILL say "it's -10" (Celsius) on a cold day, but "it's 80" (Fahrenheit) on a hot day. Less often today than in the past, but it's still very common.

[Bilbo1967]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I think that's happening less today, though, than it did 10 years ago. 10 years ago I had no "feel" for temperatures in Celsius, having grown up with Fahrenheit, but now I do.

Yes, you're right. It's a generational thing as well - my kids will probably not understand the Fahrenheit scale when they grow up.

[wodin]

Ah, yes! It brings me back to a former life when I used to spend a couple of months each year in Dunoon (actually Holy Loch), and buy Guinness by the half pint for a sixpence and whiskey by the gill for a bob (shilling).

Since I bought way too many of those, my memory of the prices may be a little hazy here, but I still have a few of those old coins laying around.

Those days ruined me for fish 'n' chips though, I've scoured the US for a decent plate of fish 'n' chips, and have come up wanting.

It would be nice if that slide show would show the relative sizes of those coins though. I do remember that they varied greatly.

[wodin]

It's a very good thing that sometime in the distant past Great Britain (England then) de-coupled the currency from the price of silver. The article said a Pound Sterling was once the actual value of a pound of silver. Let see (figger-figger), the spot price of silver is about $30 US per ounce troy, there are 20 ounces troy in a pound troy that's $600 US per pound.

Can you imagine what kind of coins would be required if a pound sterling was worth $600 US and a penny was $60 US? why, you'd need a tenth of a penny, worth about three pounds, and a thousandth of a penny worth about three pence.

Sorry, it probably would be more relevant to figger that in Euros, but trying to figger it in Euros is just too complicated for my American brain.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by wodin

It's a very good thing that sometime in the distant past Great Britain (England then) de-coupled the currency from the price of silver. The article said a Pound Sterling was once the actual value of a pound of silver. Let see (figger-figger), the spot price of silver is about $30 US per ounce troy, there are 20 ounces troy in a pound troy that's $600 US per pound.

It's not so very distant. Certainly up to the early years of the 20th century at least, Britain's currency was tied to the gold standard, and a gold sovereign was worth exactly £1. Today, a gold sovereign sells for over £200, although its face value (and they are still legal tender) remains £1.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by wodin

The article said a Pound Sterling was once the actual value of a pound of silver. Let see (figger-figger), the spot price of silver is about $30 US per ounce troy, there are 20 ounces troy in a pound troy that's $600 US per pound.

Can you imagine what kind of coins would be required if a pound sterling was worth $600 US and a penny was $60 US? why, you'd need a tenth of a penny, worth about three pounds, and a thousandth of a penny worth about three pence.

Your calculations are a little out.

There are only 12 troy ounces in a troy pound, not 20, and the pound of silver was not a Troy pound, but a slightly smaller pound, now known as the Tower pound. The original anglo-saxon silver penny was 22.5 grains, or 0.046875 Troy ounces, and the original pound was 5400 grains, not the 5760 grains of the Troy pound.

[EDIT: Further research shows I mis-understood this. While the silver penny was made with only 22.5 grains of silver, it was worth 24 grains, making 240 silver pennies worth a troy pound of silver, although they actually weighed less. The difference being the value of having the standard coin. This doesn't make much difference to the following calculations though.]

Your silver value gives the current silver price as £20 per troy ounce, making the silver penny worth £0.9375. But this is taking a historically very high silver value. Over the past 40 years*, the silver price has in general been between £2 and £4 per troy ounce, making the silver penny worth between 10p and 20p, a much more reasonable figure.

Now consider inflation.

20 pence today is about the same a ha'penny in 1900.

So the value of a silver penny in recent decades has been mostly between that of a farthing and a ha'penny in 1900.

So it wouldn't be massively unweildy to have silver pennies and ha'pennies as the lowest value coin today.

Bring back the silver standard!


*Looking at the price of silver in recent decades (http://silverprice.org/silver-price-history.html), and taking into account exchange rates over that time (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tables_...tes_to_the_USD), we see that, except for speculation spikes, the price of a troy ounce of silver has been between £2 and £4.

[Billi]

And, do you find it better and easier that you've gone decimal or is this just a matter of habit and doesn't really make any big difference? Would you "advice" the US-Americans to go decimal, too?

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Billi

And, do you find it better and easier that you've gone decimal or is this just a matter of habit and doesn't really make any big difference? Would you "advice" the US-Americans to go decimal, too?

Americans already have a decimal currency.

I think you refer to metrication — adopting the international metric (SI) weights and measures.

Yes, the US should certainly do that. They are one of the few countries in the world that have retained pre-SI weights and measures, and I suspect that it is hurting their engineering and trade.