British coinage
PROF A. R. Whitaker {FEC FAC}
even thrupenny bits, but I'm not ready for a world without shillings
and half-crowns. On my first trip to England a twelve-penny piece was
stamped "shilling" (I'm sure of this because I still have one) and I
believe the half-crown was also stamped. (We don't do it that way -
pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters, and half-dollars are simply marked
1 cent, 5 cents, 10 cents, 25 cents, and 50 cents - very prosaic.)
On my second trip, the shift had been made to decimal coinage.
There was still a piece worth a twentieth of pound, and it was still
the same size as the shilling, but it was only stamped with a 5. I
don't recall whether there is a 12.5 p piece; if there is, it's still
an eighth of a pound and could properly be identified as a half-crown.
Do you have a piece worth 25 p? If so, it could be identified as a
crown. I hope you will all get to work on this and have things in
proper order in time for my next visit.
In 1971 a letter to the _Times_ proposed a decimal calendar:
10 months of 10 days each, each new day to be worth 3.65 old days.
Did anything ever come of this?
A. Royall Whitaker, Gent.
Often in erorr, never in doubt
Kevin Forcey
PROF A. R. Whitaker {FEC FAC} wrote in message
<96rhee$rf$1...@diamond.ewlab.usna.edu>...
> I can get along without farthings and ha'pennies, I suppose, and
>even thrupenny bits, but I'm not ready for a world without shillings
>and half-crowns. On my first trip to England a twelve-penny piece was
>stamped "shilling" (I'm sure of this because I still have one) and I
>believe the half-crown was also stamped. (We don't do it that way -
>pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters, and half-dollars are simply marked
>1 cent, 5 cents, 10 cents, 25 cents, and 50 cents - very prosaic.)
> On my second trip, the shift had been made to decimal coinage.
>There was still a piece worth a twentieth of pound, and it was still
>the same size as the shilling, but it was only stamped with a 5. I
>don't recall whether there is a 12.5 p piece; if there is, it's still
>an eighth of a pound and could properly be identified as a half-crown.
>Do you have a piece worth 25 p? If so, it could be identified as a
>crown. I hope you will all get to work on this and have things in
>proper order in time for my next visit.
The six pence piece was known colloquially as the 'tanner' although it
definitely was not stamped so. The shilling was often called a 'bob'. I
think the two shilling coin was once called a florin although I've never
heard that word actually used. The two shilling piece was introduced as an
early attempt at a decimal system (10 to the pound). Both shillings and two
shillings remained in circulation for years after decimalisation as the 5p
and 10p coins were identical in size (they have now been reduced in size).
Crowns used to be minted for special occasions but were not in general
circulation.
There has never been either a 12.5p or 25p piece.
> In 1971 a letter to the _Times_ proposed a decimal calendar:
>10 months of 10 days each, each new day to be worth 3.65 old days.
>Did anything ever come of this?
I think Napoleon thought of decimalising the calendar although not quite so
radically as this suggestion.
Kevin
Peter J Lusby
Attention, one and all. This is the bloke who got all huffy when I
suggested his earlier post about British pronunciation was a troll!
Warm regards
Peter
--
"A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware"- Rupert Brooke, "The
Soldier"
Peter J. Lusby
http://www.lusby.org
Sue Spence
says...
>
> I can get along without farthings and ha'pennies, I suppose, and
>even thrupenny bits, but I'm not ready for a world without shillings
>and half-crowns. On my first trip to England a twelve-penny piece was
>stamped "shilling" (I'm sure of this because I still have one) and I
>believe the half-crown was also stamped. (We don't do it that way -
>pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters, and half-dollars are simply marked
>1 cent, 5 cents, 10 cents, 25 cents, and 50 cents - very prosaic.)
> On my second trip, the shift had been made to decimal coinage.
>There was still a piece worth a twentieth of pound, and it was still
>the same size as the shilling, but it was only stamped with a 5. I
>don't recall whether there is a 12.5 p piece; if there is, it's still
>an eighth of a pound and could properly be identified as a half-crown.
>Do you have a piece worth 25 p? If so, it could be identified as a
>crown. I hope you will all get to work on this and have things in
>proper order in time for my next visit.
Oh yes, we'll be right on it. Any other obsolete currency you'd like revived
while we at it? Groats, florins, guineas, etc?
Others will no doubt fill you in on the various denominations of coins currently
circulated here. When you visit, you are welcome to refer to the 5p coin as a
shilling, but nobody under 40 will have any idea what you're talking about.
Speaking of ha'pennies, I recently discovered that's the correct title of the
old, heavily worn copper coin sitting on one of our night storage heaters. The
old man who used to own this house used to use it to adjust the "overnight
charge" dial. It is obviously quite old and the features on it are not all that
far from being gone, but if you get it in the light and squint a lot, you can
make out the basic outlines of the major features, and "III DE". Using the
magic of the www, I matched it to a George III half penny coin which would be
worth a massive 55 GBP if it was in excellent condition.
> In 1971 a letter to the _Times_ proposed a decimal calendar:
>10 months of 10 days each, each new day to be worth 3.65 old days.
Monty Python proposed a decimal alphabet not long after that.
>Did anything ever come of this?
>
Yes, you read it and thought it was funny.
Steph
"Peter J Lusby" <p...@lusby.org> wrote in message
news:3A9174A9...@lusby.org...
But what's a "{FEC FAC}"?
Kevin Forcey
Sue Spence wrote in message <96rqa...@drn.newsguy.com>...
revived
>while we at it? Groats, florins, guineas, etc?
>
>Others will no doubt fill you in on the various denominations of coins
currently
>circulated here. When you visit, you are welcome to refer to the 5p coin
as a
>shilling, but nobody under 40 will have any idea what you're talking about.
>
I remember doing 'Bob-a-job' when I was in the cub scouts. Mind you I have
just crossed the dreaded 40 barrier.
>Speaking of ha'pennies, I recently discovered that's the correct title of
the
>old, heavily worn copper coin sitting on one of our night storage heaters.
The
>old man who used to own this house used to use it to adjust the "overnight
>charge" dial. It is obviously quite old and the features on it are not all
that
>far from being gone, but if you get it in the light and squint a lot, you
can
>make out the basic outlines of the major features, and "III DE". Using
the
>magic of the www, I matched it to a George III half penny coin which would
be
>worth a massive 55 GBP if it was in excellent condition.
Victorian pennies were still in circulation in the 1960s - I've saved one or
two (very badly worn) examples.
>
>> In 1971 a letter to the _Times_ proposed a decimal calendar:
>>10 months of 10 days each, each new day to be worth 3.65 old days.
>
>
If the earth's orbit was adjusted slightly (as is apparently possible
according to a recent report), a year of exactly 360 days could be created.
Much easier to divide. I think the earth would have to be a bit closer to
the sun, which could warm things up a bit. Also the orbits of Venus and
Mercury would be destabilised - but that seems a small price to pay for
achieving such an easy number to work with.
Peter J Lusby
Kevin Forcey wrote:
> Sue Spence wrote in message <96rqa...@drn.newsguy.com>...
>
> >> In 1971 a letter to the _Times_ proposed a decimal calendar:
> >>10 months of 10 days each, each new day to be worth 3.65 old days.
> >
> >
>
> If the earth's orbit was adjusted slightly (as is apparently possible
> according to a recent report), a year of exactly 360 days could be created.
> Much easier to divide. I think the earth would have to be a bit closer to
> the sun, which could warm things up a bit. Also the orbits of Venus and
> Mercury would be destabilised - but that seems a small price to pay for
> achieving such an easy number to work with.
Many years ago the late Dr Asimov wrote a humourous, but intriguing article for
American Airlines in-flight magazine, in which he pointed out that as mankind
moves into space, it makes very little sense to drag with us a system of time
measurement based on the orbital characteristics of an insignificant planet in
an insignificant star system, in an insignificant corner of the galaxy, that in
any case is subject to change without notice. He therefore proposed a decimal
time system which made a lot of sense when I read it at the time, but the
details of which have subsequently been overwritten in long-term storage.
Warm regards
Peter
--
"A dust whom England bore. shaped, made aware" - Rupert Brooke - The Soldier
Peter J Lusby
p...@Lusby.org
http://www.lusby.org
Kevin Forcey
Peter J Lusby wrote in message <3A92A404...@lusby.org>...
>
>
>Kevin Forcey wrote:
>
>> Sue Spence wrote in message <96rqa...@drn.newsguy.com>...
>>
>> >> In 1971 a letter to the _Times_ proposed a decimal calendar:
>> >>10 months of 10 days each, each new day to be worth 3.65 old days.
>> >
>> >
>Many years ago the late Dr Asimov wrote a humourous, but intriguing article
for
>American Airlines in-flight magazine, in which he pointed out that as
mankind
>moves into space, it makes very little sense to drag with us a system of
time
>measurement based on the orbital characteristics of an insignificant planet
in
>an insignificant star system, in an insignificant corner of the galaxy,
that in
>any case is subject to change without notice. He therefore proposed a
decimal
>time system which made a lot of sense when I read it at the time, but the
>details of which have subsequently been overwritten in long-term storage.
>
Although the day length is programmed into the human brain. Maybe the month
is programmed into the female brain - but that's a different kettle of fish.
I suppose the most scientific system would be to define a 'metric year' as a
kiloday- or if that was too long, a hectaday could be a possibility.
Some time ago a scientist proposed a unit for measuring female beauty - the
Helen. The measurement principle was based on the observation that 1 Helen
is enough beauty to launch a thousand ships. It therefore follows that 1
milliHelen would be sufficient to launch exactly one ship.
Peter J Lusby
Kevin Forcey wrote:
IIRC, he proposed that, on that scale, Twiggy would rate a femto-helen, which
gives you some idea of the antiquity of the proposal.
Sue Spence
>
>
>Peter J Lusby wrote in message <3A92A404...@lusby.org>...
>>
>>
>>Kevin Forcey wrote:
>>
>>> Sue Spence wrote in message <96rqa...@drn.newsguy.com>...
>>>
>>> >> In 1971 a letter to the _Times_ proposed a decimal calendar:
>>> >>10 months of 10 days each, each new day to be worth 3.65 old days.
>>> >
>>> >
>
>>Many years ago the late Dr Asimov wrote a humourous, but intriguing article
>for
>>American Airlines in-flight magazine, in which he pointed out that as
>mankind
>>moves into space, it makes very little sense to drag with us a system of
>time
>>measurement based on the orbital characteristics of an insignificant planet
>in
>>an insignificant star system, in an insignificant corner of the galaxy,
>that in
>>any case is subject to change without notice. He therefore proposed a
>decimal
>>time system which made a lot of sense when I read it at the time, but the
>>details of which have subsequently been overwritten in long-term storage.
>>
>
>
>Although the day length is programmed into the human brain. Maybe the month
>is programmed into the female brain - but that's a different kettle of fish.
It's all hormones. I don't think you should mention fish and women in the same
sentence like that, BTW.
>
>I suppose the most scientific system would be to define a 'metric year' as a
>kiloday- or if that was too long, a hectaday could be a possibility
>
>Some time ago a scientist proposed a unit for measuring female beauty - the
>Helen. The measurement principle was based on the observation that 1 Helen
>is enough beauty to launch a thousand ships. It therefore follows that 1
>milliHelen would be sufficient to launch exactly one ship.
>
That takes me back a few years. I haven't seen a units & dimensions list for
quite a while now. 10^6 phones = 1 megaphone, 2000 mockingbirds = 2
kilomockingbirds, 2 monograms = 1 diagram, etc. Nyuk nyuk. I looked up the
milliHelen thing to see if there was an 'original' source, but found instead an
short piece published in 1992 in Analog magazine based on it. Read at your own
risk, but I'd have to say that it isn't the worse example of such humor.
Peter J Lusby
Sue Spence wrote:
I think this is the "original source". I still have that issue of Analog in my
collection. Clearly I had even forgotten where and when I came across it. Stan
Schmidt is very careful about making sure that original copyright is respected.
Kevin Forcey
>>
>>
>>Although the day length is programmed into the human brain. Maybe the
month
>>is programmed into the female brain - but that's a different kettle of
fish.
>
>It's all hormones. I don't think you should mention fish and women in the
same
>sentence like that, BTW.
>
Even if she were a mere maid?
>>
>>
>
>That takes me back a few years. I haven't seen a units & dimensions list
for
>quite a while now. 10^6 phones = 1 megaphone, 2000 mockingbirds = 2
>kilomockingbirds, 2 monograms = 1 diagram, etc. Nyuk nyuk. I looked up the
>milliHelen thing to see if there was an 'original' source, but found
instead an
>short piece published in 1992 in Analog magazine based on it. Read at your
own
>risk, but I'd have to say that it isn't the worse example of such humor.
>
>http://www.goines.net/Writing/HELEN_of_TROY.html
>
Thanks for the site - I'll check it out it tomorrow during an extended
coffee break.
Kevin