£sd

£sd (pronounced, and sometimes written, L.s.d.) was the popular name for the pre-decimal currencies used in the United Kingdom (sterling), and in most of its Empire and colonies. Meaning "pounds, shillings and pence" the term originated from the Latin "librae, solidi, denarii" hence the use of the hatched "L" (£) for pounds and "d" for pence. Under this system there were 12d (12 pence) in a shilling and 20s (20 shillings) in a pound, making 240d in a pound. The penny (1d) was (until 1960) further divided into 4 farthings. Unlike modern currency systems, the pre-decimalization United Kingdom currency system was based on fractions (instead of decimals). As countries became independent from the UK, some (like the United States) abandoned the £sd system quickly, while others (like Australia) retained it almost as long as Britain itself, and still others, notably Ireland, decimalised only when Britain did. Britain abandoned the currency on Decimal Day, February 15, 1971. For much of the twentieth century, £sd was the monetary system of most of the Commonwealth countries, the major exception being Canada. Historically, similar systems based on Roman coinage were also used elsewhere, for example for the division of the Livre tournois in France, or the Dutch Guilder.

Writing conventions

In writing, there were several conventions for representing amounts of money in pounds, shillings and pence: £2.3s.6d. (two pounds, three shillings and sixpence) 1/- (one shilling, colloquially 'one bob') 11d. (elevenpence) 1½d (a penny halfpenny, three halfpence – note that the "lf" in halfpenny/halfpence was always silent - they were pronounced 'haypenny' and 'haypence' - hence the occasional spellings "ha'penny" and "ha'pence") 2/6 (two shillings and six pence, usually pronounced as "two-and-six" or "half a crown") 2/- (two shillings, or one florin, colloquially 'two bob') 4s.3d. ("four-and-threepence", the latter word pronounced 'thruppence', 'threppence' or 'throopence', -oo- as in 'foot') 5s. (five shillings, one crown, five bob, a dollar) £14.8s.2d (fourteen pounds, eight shillings and twopence - pronounced 'tuppence' – in columns of figures) £1.10s.- (one pound, ten shillings; one pound ten, thirty bob) Halfpennies and farthings (quarter of a penny) were represented by the appropriate symbol after the whole pence. A convention frequently used in retail pricing was to list prices over one pound all in shillings, rather than in pounds and shillings; for example, £4-18-0 would be written as 98/- (£4.90 in decimal currency). Sometimes prices of luxury goods and furniture were expressed by merchants in whole numbers of guineas, even though the guinea coin had not been in use for over 150 years. A guinea was twenty-one shillings (£1.05 in decimal currency). Traditionally, solicitors prepared their bills in guineas, allegedly because it gave them an extra 5%. Many British horse races quoted their prize funds in guineas - such as the One Thousand Guineas at Newmarket Racecourse.

In popular culture

The "wizarding world" in Harry Potter uses a parody of the L.S.D. system. Lysergic acid diethylamide was sometimes called “pounds, shillings and pence” during the 1960s, because of the abbreviation LSD.^[1] The English rock group The Pretty Things released a 1966 single entitled "£.s.d." that highlighted the double entendre.

See also

• Decimal Day for decimalisation in the UK and Ireland
• Decimalisation, for international decimalisation information.
• Pre-decimal British coinage
• Irish pre-decimal system

References

1. ^ Dickson, Paul (1998). Slang: The Authoritative Topic-By-Topic Dictionary of American Lingoes from All Walks of Life. Pocket Books, 134.