just doing my bit for British tourism
Jan. 20th, 2011 04:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
winterbadgerAdvice I posted on a wargaming board when a European said he was thinking of doing an academic internship in the UK and wanted suggestions for places to go.
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Just remember that they don't use the Euro in the UK, but their own beloved British pound.
A pound is made up of 20 shillings, each of 12 pennies (or "pence" often abbreviated "d" because each is worth a very plain and basic dinner). If you have 21 shillings, you can trade them in for a guinea--a live guinea fowl, a bird--but most people don't do this, as the birds flap a lot and don't fit in your wallet.
You can also find coins called crowns (worth 5 shillings, or 6 if you place it carefully on your head before paying), half-crowns (worth 2.5 shillings, or 3 on the special days called "half-holidays"), and florins, which are worth 2 shillings, 3 if you are Italian and from the city of Florence (they will check, so bring ID).
Because the British pound is very strong, even pennies are valuable and are therefore often broken into pieces. A quarter penny is a farthing and a half penny is called a ha'penny (HAY-penny) because it's just enough for a cab ride (in the old days, it was enough to buy hay for the cab horse). Thrupenny bits are worth 3 pence, groats 4 (from the Dutch word for "great" because although they are worth 4 pennies they are the largest coin in circulation, about 3cm in diameter).
People who have traded in their shillings for a guinea and regretted it (guinea fowl do all the other tiresome things birds do...) can go to the fleshmarket (open-air butcher's market) and "lose" them (trade them in) for money again, but at a big discount, usually only whatever change the butcher finds in his pockets--hence the expression that someone unhappy "looks as if he's 'lost' a guinea and 'found' a groat".
Finally, the coin that is very prized but rarely seen is the sovereign. It is a gold coin worth 20 shillings (or one pound). They are called sovereigns because they are distributed once a year by the sovereign her (or, eventually him) self. They are rarely used in trade, however, because if you get one, you can present it at Buckingham Palace and get one free wish from the Queen (or at some point in the far-distant future, the King). So you can see that someone wouldn't just hand it over in exchange for a night's lodging or three-course dinner.
OK, I've got lots more helpful tips on expenses, travel, the British university system, and the zany old customs of those crazy Brits, but I'll have to save those for later. It's getting cold here, and I need to go through another shovelful of wooden nickels on the fire...
******************************************
Just remember that they don't use the Euro in the UK, but their own beloved British pound.
A pound is made up of 20 shillings, each of 12 pennies (or "pence" often abbreviated "d" because each is worth a very plain and basic dinner). If you have 21 shillings, you can trade them in for a guinea--a live guinea fowl, a bird--but most people don't do this, as the birds flap a lot and don't fit in your wallet.
You can also find coins called crowns (worth 5 shillings, or 6 if you place it carefully on your head before paying), half-crowns (worth 2.5 shillings, or 3 on the special days called "half-holidays"), and florins, which are worth 2 shillings, 3 if you are Italian and from the city of Florence (they will check, so bring ID).
Because the British pound is very strong, even pennies are valuable and are therefore often broken into pieces. A quarter penny is a farthing and a half penny is called a ha'penny (HAY-penny) because it's just enough for a cab ride (in the old days, it was enough to buy hay for the cab horse). Thrupenny bits are worth 3 pence, groats 4 (from the Dutch word for "great" because although they are worth 4 pennies they are the largest coin in circulation, about 3cm in diameter).
People who have traded in their shillings for a guinea and regretted it (guinea fowl do all the other tiresome things birds do...) can go to the fleshmarket (open-air butcher's market) and "lose" them (trade them in) for money again, but at a big discount, usually only whatever change the butcher finds in his pockets--hence the expression that someone unhappy "looks as if he's 'lost' a guinea and 'found' a groat".
Finally, the coin that is very prized but rarely seen is the sovereign. It is a gold coin worth 20 shillings (or one pound). They are called sovereigns because they are distributed once a year by the sovereign her (or, eventually him) self. They are rarely used in trade, however, because if you get one, you can present it at Buckingham Palace and get one free wish from the Queen (or at some point in the far-distant future, the King). So you can see that someone wouldn't just hand it over in exchange for a night's lodging or three-course dinner.
OK, I've got lots more helpful tips on expenses, travel, the British university system, and the zany old customs of those crazy Brits, but I'll have to save those for later. It's getting cold here, and I need to go through another shovelful of wooden nickels on the fire...
