American Couple Reacts: Learning about British Currency, Past & Present! P.O. Box gifts at the end! 

The currency symbol for the US japan and the UK follow the same rule the letter has two lines drawn through it, Y for the Yen, S for the dollar and L (Libra) for the pound. Libra is the Latin for pound. By the way, the S in the dollar symbol comes from the coin being made of silver. The story is a bit more complicated but that is essentially what it boils down to.

Also , forgot to mention:- £ - pound, a fancy way of writing L - latin libra s - short for solidus, a Roman unit of currency d - short for denarius, also a Roman unit And that is why another term for money was Lsd! Not to be confused with a certain psychoactive substance!

Here is a comparison of values between Old £/s/d and New £/p. The direct comparisons that can be carried over for a single coin are :- 1s = 5p, 2s = 10p, 10s = 50p. New coins and their old equivalent values are :- 1p = 2.4d, 2p = 4.8d, 20p = 4s Old coins not carried over :- 1d, 3d, 6d, Florin, HalfCrown, Crown, Guinea. Technically 3d = 1.25p, 6d = 2.5p, HalfCrown = 12.5p, Crown = 25p and Guinea = 105p. As we did not want fractions of coins it is easy to see why these were discontinued.

just as a note, the actual money shown in this video you watched is out of date, all of our notes are now plastic, not paper, and the pound coin shown in the video is no longer legal tender, the 'new' pound coin has a multi sided design and the same colour scheme as the £2 coin, with a silver center piece and golden edge to the coin, and the 'famous people' on the backs of our notes have all been changed from these ones shown, as a side note, you can also get commemorative £5 coins from the royal mint, which are legal tender if you're desperate for cash and have one that you got as a present or something, but they are only found as rarities due to them being mostly as a 'show' item and not really used in day to day use.

I’m in my fifties never heard it called the folding stuff! There are lots of slang terms for money in the UK, some of the top of my head, Brass, Smackers, Wonga.

The farthing (1/4p) had a reverse of the smallest UK native UK British bird, the Wren. I have several crowns, these were enormous, and are quite prized by collectors - about 2.5 inches across. Sometimes new ones are minted for special UK occasions. I also buy specialist coins for commemorative events, usually minted in 24ct gold. These are called sovereigns, and worth from £100+. Back in the day, we’d always keep a 1/2p in our wallets (even when it went out of circulation) because it was perfect for using as a screwdriver, or adjusting your car’s carburettors.

When decimalisation occurred the 2 shilling, shilling and sixpence were exactly 10p, 5p and 2 1/2p respectively so those coins remained in circulation alongside the new coinage. The notes remained unchanged. There are plenty of old coins still about available in antique and vintage shops.

She didn't really go into the slang for pre-decimal currency, apart from the ubiquitous quid. There's "bob" for shilling, e.g. two bob or a ten bob note, "ha'penny" for halfpenny, "thru'penny bit" (or "thruppence") for threepenny, and "half a nicker" for ten shillings. To complicate things further, there were ways of expressing prices, like "fourpence ha'penny" for 4½d. (She forgot to mention that 'd' was the abbreviation for penny.) A price might be written as £2 12/1½, which would be said as two pounds, twelve [shillings] and a penny ha'penny. Don't worry, any Brit under the age of 50 would be as confused as you! There's a great US Army training film on RU-vid from 1942, in which Lloyd Bridges tries to explain all of this in a pub, but gives up and recommends just putting all your change on the bar and letting the barmaid take the right amount. (Before you ask why it was so complicated, though, ask yourselves why you still use Imperial/US weight and measures long after we wised up and converted to the metric system!) Another term for coins, especially the copper ones (now actually made of steel), is "shrapnel" as they're not worth much but you tend to acquire a lot of them because items tend to be priced to 99p rather than rounded up to the nearest pound. Covid has hastened the use of cashless transactions, thankfully, so pockets worn out by excessive loose change are becoming a thing of the past! BTW, the reason for the currency units going down as far as a farthing is that, prior to the 20th century, a pound was a considerable sum of money and most workers would only be paid a shilling or two per week. Thanks for another great video!

The video missed one of the most interesting points about the old currency. Notice that the coins were followed by a d and not a p. The d stood for denarius, plural denarii, the currency in Roman times.

Love the Union Jack apparel it suits you! For the visually impaired in the UK they notes have a series of braille dots on one side, one set of dots on the £5, two on the £10, and three on the £20, I believe the £50 has four sets of dots, but have never seen a £50 in a long time. Our currency before we joined the European community was based on the 12th everybody else in Europe was based on 10. The sixpence you keep mentioning was half a shilling, we had 1p, 3p, 6p (sixpence), shilling (12p), £ (240p), we also had a Guinea which was £1 and one shilling, today's Guinea is the equivalent of £1-05p (105p). After joining the European community in 1971 our money went to base 10.

What would you use a farthing for? There was a time when a loaf of bread cost a quarter of a(n old) penny.

Allow me to now confuse you. Northern Ireland and Scottish banks each issue their own bank notes which are different to those issued by the Bank of England. In Wales the penny is often referred to as a cent (e.g. On car park payment machines). In pre 1971 currency, the 3d was referred to as thruppence the thruppenny bit. Not true to say that decimalization was a condition of joining the EU.

Lots of slang words for the old (prior to 15th February 1971) coins and notes. e.g.Three penny bit (3d) = "Thruppeny Bit" , six pence (Brian May's pick = 6d) = "a tanner", one shilling (1/20th of a pound) = "a bob", a ten shilling note (half a (£) pound) = Ten Bob. A "fidget game" used thrupenny bits (3d) which were 12 sided, which was to balance them edge-on on top of each other. p.s. the abbreviations/symbols were as follows - Pound = "£" (a script upper case "L" with an extra stroke or two - similar to the way a US Dollar is represented by an "S" with extra strokes), Shillings = "s" (from solidus - Roman coin??), and penny/pennies = "d" (from denarius=roman coin)

Hiya Natasha and Debbie, most of the older generation still work the price out in pounds ,shillings and pence, but us younger ones don't understand it, just as much as you guys, the new £5 has a picture of Winston Churchill on the reverse side, since the first lockdown I've used my debit card for paying for things and I've kept it going ever since.

Hi Natasha and Debbie I'm in great Britain and have watched many of your shows and they're great funny and packed full of good information your both great fun witty and love a good laugh . Thanks for the entertainment and very interesting look at the USA and here in Britain and other countries around the world I do hope you get to visit your favorite counties towns and Islands soon .xx😍 clare

One of the reasons that our notes are different sizes is to prevent an old form of forgery called 'note washing.' This was when forgers would bleach the ink off of a low value note and reprint it with a high value. eg, bleach a one dollar bill and reprint it as a 100 dollar bill. This was an effective forgery as the forged note was printed on the original special paper stock so it would evade the simple pen and UV tests. With our notes being different sizes, you can't reprint a five pound note to look like a fifty pound note.

Scotland also had £100 that you could use anywhere in the UK, the largest english note was the £100,000,000 (one hundred million pounds)

You can get a six pence easily enough online or from coin collector shops. We put them in Christmas puddings

The only thing wrong with this video is that since it was made, the notes and the pound coin have changed. The notes are now polymer and partly transparent and the pound coin now has flat edges and two tone metal. The £50 note now features Alan Turing, the £20 has the artist Turner, the £10 has Jane Austen and the £5 has Winston Churchill.

The notes and coins are different sizes and colours to help partial sighted people but also makes it easier to find the ones you want in wallet or purse as you can feel the ones you want by size. Little fact the pound is called that because when it was first cast it weighed 1 pound.

There’s still a phrase used today when discussing the value of something which is ‘what’s that in old money?’

The guinea coin was originally (in 1663) supposed to be valued at £1, but because it was made of 91% gold (mostly from the 'Guinea' region of West Africa, hence the name) its metal value tended to vary against the 'currency' pound up until its notional value was artificially fixed at £1 1/- (1 pound and 1 shilling) in 1717. The coin itself was withdrawn during the 1810s, by which point the coin was actually worth about £1 7/- on the open market. The idea of a guinea with the £1+1sh value set in 1717 was used even after the coin was taken out of use because it sounded high-class (so was used in high-value purchases like land, art, horses, professionals' fees and so on), right up until decimalisation the 1970s. It's still used for racehorse auctions (at a value of £1.05 in new money), in part because it's very easy to calculate a 5% commission with it (buyer pays X guineas, seller gets X pounds, and the auctioneer gets X shillings or 5*X pence in commission.)

A 5p coin is sometimes called a 'bob' . I.e. if something costs 50p some people might say 10 'bob'.

Hi it's Paul again,, at the same time as the money changing we changed from feet and inches, pounds and ounces and gallons and pints. This was a big day in UK history. Don't forget that it's called the imperial system because if was founded in the UK. Love Paul.

Hi Girls. Just something you may like to know. The 'Guinea' is still used in some work fields for payment. Such as Horse trading and Farm animals. Usually at auctions. It is still £1 + 5p. A modern 5p is more or less equal to the old shilling. A term that might interest you. "Taking the Queen's shilling".

And you called the flag by its correct name. 'The Union Flag.' Another great video girls.

Pre decimalisation coins were Farthing, a quarter penny Ha'penny, half a penny Penny, 1 penny Thrupenny bit, 3 pennies Sixpence also known as a tanner, six pennies A Shilling, 12 pennies 2 shillings also known as two bob, 24 pennies Half a crown, 30 pennies Crown, 60 pennies. Then notes 10 shillings also known as a ten bob note, 120 pennies 1 pound, 240 pennies 5 pounds 10 pounds 20 pounds 50 pounds. Hope that clears things up a little.

always a pleasure to see you both , and as a 61 male i remember and still have pre decimal coins , love the videos keep them up and thanks to take time to post them

My Father had a very old coin a 1/4 Farthing. £ is the symbol for a "Pound"

When the 50p coin with the flats on the edges was first introduced it was suggested it was for getting it out of a Scotsman's hand with a spanner. As a Scot myself I resent this.

Originally, before calculating devices goods and curreny would often use a base 12 instead of 10. That is because you can count to 12 on one hand by using the thumb as a sort of stylus or pointer and count using th ejoints of the fingers on one hand of which there are 12, simple.but further, by using the other hand you can record the number of 12s i.e. one twelve, two twelves and so on, counting up to 12 twelves or 144 also called a gross (large). When the British currency was introduced it was worth much more than today so most people never came across a pound (quid) often not even a shilling (12 pence) so most could use their fingers for tallying and simple calculations. The symbol for a pound is a stylised L with two bars through (as all currency symbols have) i.e. £ (ok the keyboard symbol only has one but it should be 2). The reason for the L is that it was from the Roman Livre which is still used in France (the word, not the currency)

Old money explained. A pound was 240 pennies. There was four farthings in a penny or two half pennies in a penny. The farthing weighed exactly 1 quarter of a penny & a half penny weighed exactly half a penny. A bag of mixed coins could be literally weighed at the bank instead of counting. Genius. There was a threepenny piece called a thrupence. A six penny piece called a sixpence. A 12 penny piece called a shilling. A 24 penny piece called a florin. A 30 penny piece called a Half Crown. A 60 penny piece called a Crown. The silver was also weighed in a similar manner to the copper at the bank. 1 pound of sterling silver weighs the same as 240 pennies (or 12 shillings). To say we were scammed at decimalisation is an understatement.

i still have most these coins and some old notes

Hey guys, I am really enjoying your videos, keep it up :D

Ebay sells six pences for 99p (pence) which is a penny less than a pound (quid) enjoyed the video

Notes diff sizes to help those with sight problems I think, as with coin edges,shapes. The old sixpence was also known as a tanner. 3d old pence a threepenny bit. Just to confuse you more. 😁

Really enjoyed this video, thanks for posting. Love from the UK.

15th February 1971 the day my kid sister was born. Decimal Dot she was called. LSD that's Pounds (Librae) Shillings (Solidi) and Pence (Denarii)

Good reaction. The lady’s style of explanation is just that. Her style. I don’t think she is talking to anyone as though they are children.

Here in Northern Ireland which is part of the UK btw, we use the english coins and notes and also there are 3 NI banks that print their own money from denominations of £5, £10, £20, £50 & £100 notes but, it is rare to see £100 note in the wild these days.

We have £50 notes but they’re rare to find because not many banks print £50 notes, and annoyingly if you try to buy anything with a £50 note most of the time they won’t accept it because they can’t hold £50 notes. Also since the video was released the £1 coin has changed, as of 2017 it has a 12-sided shape.

Things have moved on since the original video was made , the 5, 10 and 20 paper notes have all been replaced with new plastic polymer ones, they even have clear "windows" in them ,this all helps reduce forgery. and the plastic ones will last longer. Also the pound coin has changed ,it is now no longer round but has 12 edges to maintain the "round" shape, and is cast in two coloured metals ,gold/brass edge with a silver centre, again to help reduce forgery, it wasn't shown but the £2 is a two metal coin like the £1,but round and larger.

I'm learning too 😅 this is brilliant. Even though I'm just next door to the UK. I guess notes are easy for me. Funny though for work , I deal with UK a lot and the money side..apart for the usual 1p, 30 p or GBP. I knew about the shilling but gosh never really think about them. Good one 🙂👍

'Pence', is the singular plural term for a coin that's value is greater than one penny. So, '20 pence', as an example, has a value of 20 pennies but as a single coin is 20 pence. You wouldn't call it a, '20 pennies piece', for example. By rights, a penny shouldn't be called a, '1 pence piece', as it consists only of a single penny.

If you ever come to the UK make sure you don’t get £50 notes while doing currency exchange, shops hate taking them. Even the new ones as the £50 is the one that's usually forged.

I'm ancient enough to remember the old money and working out your change required excellent mental arithmetic, the average shop assistant today wouldn't stand a chance. She didn't mention any slang for the old money. 'bob' was used almost exclusively instead of 'shilling' don't think I ever heard anyone say 'shilling' and the 10 bob note which was half a pound was often called 'half a sheet'

Elizabeth became the Queen in 1954

Do the quiz, do the quiz 😂

It is worth noting that at the point of decimalisation, 1 new penny was equal to 2.5 old pennies. So 1p = 2.5d.

Interesting video . The slang for £20 is a score £25 is a pony and £100 is a ton . I use the words score and ton alot . £50 notes are not as widely used as they used to be but mainly because alot of shops / retail do not trust them to be genuine but alot of people still like them if they are taking larger sums out of the bank . The new polymer notes are really nice but my favourites are the old William shakespeare £20 note and the Christopher Wren £50 note . I am not quite old enough to actually remember the change to decimal but I am old enough to know about and understand the old money and it was not unusal for people to say look at the price of that 50pence thats 10 shillings is,nt it dreadful .

Quid can replace pound in any monetary context, regardless of amount

One thing the old dear didn't mention was the slang name for a shilling which was"bob" so 5bob 5shilling 10 bob or" half a nicker " 10shilling, farthing 1/4 penny, you may have heard of a mode of Victorian transport called a penny-farthing en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penny-farthing

What you really need to think about is in 1971 when the money changed. In 1971 I was 10 years old and my pocket money (allowance) 2/6d, 2 shillings and 6 pence (30 pennies), If I went to the sweet shop ( candy store) I could get 30 penny sweets, the day after the money I could only get 12 and a half penny change, that was a big shock at 10 years old I can tell you. Paul

Is also £20 pounds is also a score or 20 quid, and £50 is slag £50 quid or 50 notes . Also there is a 10 pence piece on use,

I collect notes and coins so loved watching your confusion 😂 As said, some notes and coins have changed since this was made but I also wanted to tell you we have commemorative coins as well! Rather similar to your quarters which can have different pictures, we have historical events and the like on some 50p and £2 coins, including a set of 29 Olympic coins from the 2012 Olympics (released on coins in 2011), coins with Beatrix Potter characters, Paddington Bear and many other designs too. These can be found in your regular change! Thought you might find that interesting to know, keep up the great content ladies 💕

The old money could be confusing (!!!) which was one of the drivers to decimalise (not a driver connection to joining Europe. Quid sign is a sort of "L" standing for Librum in Latin £.

fun fact: in scotland our money is different, we don’t have the queen on our notes we have different people and we also have a £100 note. and sometimes we have to get the money changed cause a lot of places in england don’t accept scottish money

It rare to use the term penny anymore, almost everyone (save older folk) use pence. The only other time I've heard penny used is when you're talking to a young child. There's slang for every currency denomination going, quid, fiver, tenner, monkey (£500), pony (£25), grand (£1000) and there's a lot more... I've had thousands out of the bank and the biggest they'll issue is £20, I haven't seen a £50 note in decades...

In sure this video is out of date. The £5 note has a portrait of Churchill on it

I was born in 1971. I have never understood old money. It seems unnecessarily complicated to me. My parents and older people always said that the metric system was too difficult for them to understand.

The Silver 3 Pennies was Sterling Silver. In 1950s you could still find the odd Victorian coin.

Scotland has a £100 note but some shops in England won't accept them as the English currency doesn't have a £100 note.

We never got taught about old currency in school (given its complexity I'm really glad we went metric). There are certain other complications though as while in England and Wales all paper money in circulation tend to be standard issue from the central Bank of England, in Scotland and Northern Ireland some private banks retain the right to print their own money which often looks very different. Furthermore, you can sometimes get Scottish £100 notes and Northern Irish £1 notes. As this money tends to be so different, it is often regarded with extreme suspicion in other parts of the country or even outright refused (plenty of irate Scots in England yelling "my money is as good as anyone else's). Ultimately, it is up to the establishment concerned as to whether or not they will accept it - they don't have to. (Particularly as officially the private notes are legal currency but not legal tender - its complicated.) Bottom line - you're best off using Bank of England notes everywhere if you can, if visiting the other areas and getting their notes you're best off using them while you're still in that area.

You two always warm my heart x

After visiting America I'm so glad our money has such distinctive sizes and shapes cause it makes it so much easier to work out what you're holding quickly

the reason for the currency that the old girl showed oyu was because the eu at the time of joining in 1972 they got the government to change the currency I at the time was young was given a 2 penny coin and threw it back saying that i wanted the other currency back in child language of course . it took a while for me to get use to it and happy to say we left the eu union and be happy to go back to the currency we once had also we have the £100 currency but now we use a type of plastic that Australia uses and they make our currency for us.

What she termed as slang is more colloquial than slang. Slang would be more like a pony for 25 quid or pound. A monkey for 500 quid, a Jack's or a deep sea diver for a fiver and a ton for a 100 quid. A thousand would be a grand, 20 quid is a score and 50 quid is a bullseye. These terms are really from rhyming slang so you're probably only hear them where I come from in the East End of London except grand or k which is quite common for a thousand quid. A pony comes from old Indian Rupee Bank noted. When I was growing up in the 70's we had the shilling which was worth 5p and 2 Bob which was worth 10p As I was born in the 60's all my relatives would speak in Old money so I understood both. It was referred to as a ha'penny for a halfpenny and a thre'pence for threepence. We did have 10p coins but they went just like the pound notes when we unfortunately joined the communist block which thankfully we're out of and even more thankful we didn't join the Euro or have to learn the made up European Language: Esperance lol. no one really carries cash any more. It's all plastic fantastic and contactless these days lol. The only person to carry cash would be the fictional character Del Boy from the excellently-acted and exceedingly funny 'Only fools and horses' and his like lol. Look up the great actor known as Sir David Jason. Comedic and serious actor. A quid is a pound and people would most frequently say p not penny/ies. Pence would be used for emphasis really. No one says bread or the others mentioned in the video not frequently anyway. Won't was the other term used. The youth have their own terms now. Language changes I suppose, it evolves. Hope this helps.

She mentions a penny and 1/4 of a penny was a farthing..... now you know why that old bicycle is called a penny farthing! Because it looks like a penny and a farthing side by side 😁

You’ll often hear 5p, 10p, 20p and 50p referred to as a “five pence piece”, “ten pence piece”, “twenty pence piece” and “fifty pence piece” respectively. Why the “piece”, I don’t know and why only silver coins I also don’t know. 1p and 2p and commonly referred to as “coppers” (as are police officers, just to confuse youse more lol) or “shrapnel”

We use the word Pence for plural, because 32 Pennies doesn't sound right, but 32 Pence does.

Love your scarf

Yes we do have £50 notes but not common ! And old money 12 pennies x 20 shillings = 240 is one old pound

There used to be a £100 note but it went out of circulation a few years ago or maybe a bit longer p.s great reaction both of you 😁👍⚘🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿.

Unlike the US where the bills are all the same size, same colour and nearly identical, the British notes are different sizes and colour to avoid say, giving $100 in error for $10. The £10 note has studs on one corner to help the blind identify them (and then know the smaller note must be £5, the larger note must be £20.) No one uses £50 notes (equivalent to about $68) like no one uses $1 coins. £1 and £2 coins are useful for vending machines. I understand Americans are reluctant to give up $1 bills which must get very dirty and ragged very quickly and only equivalent to our 74p.

Now that you've seen it, you can now understand that our currency is not hard to get your head around. I'm sure like us you have slang names for stuff that we might feel strsnge. You did well getting your head around our currency.

No in Bank of England it only goes to 50 but in Scotland the bank of Scotland ,the Royal bank of Scotland. And the Clydesdale bank have notes up to 100 slang word for 50p is 10 bob and a 10p is 2 bob but that when I was growing up in the 70s

Haha nice scarf 👏🇬🇧

You have your own terms for your currency:- Nickel, Dime etc. makes no sense to at all to non Americans. Theres lots of other terms for money not mentioned:- Moola and Sponns/Spondolicks. Also othe terms for amounts Fiver £5. Pony £25 (from the picture on an old Indian 25 rupee note). Ton £100. Monkey £500 (500 rupee note) Keep up the good work

If you haven't already done so, you should get some british currency and compare it to the US currency. The notes have changed for starters.

Think of quid and pound the way you say dollar or buck Same principal

I enjoyed the video! This too might be of interest. On RU-vid , by “Atomic Shrimp” , called “Why Is The UK 2 Pence Coin So Big? A Rambling Look At British Currency” . Not rambling at all, but detailed with visual examples of pre and post decimalisation currency . Very informative with visual examples he explains why our coins are the odd sizes they are today.

Different size notes for helping the blind

You can't use them £1coins anymore, they changed the £1design, them notes are the old paper notes, there a plastic type notes now, to try and stop counterfeiting

Didn't have a £50 note, didn't have a 2 pound coin, didn't have a 10p coin? How diffficult would it have been to find these for a video? If you are going to do something, do it properly or don't bother.

Hi ladies, since this video was produced we now have new £20, £10, and £5 notes they are now plastic! And the pound coin now has 12 sides to it. 😊 We very rarely use £50 pound notes because there were that many fakes so they are hardly used.

If she made a video about currency why wouldn’t she make an effort to get all the notes and coins? Also she didn’t mention the images on the back of the coins making the Royal Shield. We still have gold sovereigns and half sovereigns but they are usually made into jewellery or saved in collections in the hope gold prices will increase.

I don't know if you guys know this but when we walk into a shop and the item says £1, you hand over £1 at the checkout. Our tax is included in the price. When I've gone to the US it infuriates me that tax is added at the checkout as I never know how much extra I need.

My dad used to tell me off for saying 50 'P'. "It's pence!" He'd say!! 😂 Who remembers the half pence?!

I’m a Brit and I’ve never heard of the term ‘folding stuff’

That's the old notes. The new ones are a kind of plastic. It's a digital world now. I pay contactless with my phone for everything. Haven't really touched money for more than 2 years.

Please read: Hi everyone! We hope you liked this episode. We know this video is 5 years old & a bit out of date but the basics of the currency we finally understand! We don't need more comments telling us it's out of date, we get it! Your comments are always helpful so please check before commenting that the same comment isn't posted 100 times already. And please remember no video will ever cover any one topic 100%. Please Like the video & thanks for being you! ❤

They say that a handful of coins from the old currency could have had coins that were well over 100 years old and had included the heads of the monarchs spanning that time. Bit of a legacy to lose, but our coins still go back 50 years I suppose

Interesting fact if you measure the modern coins which have "flats" on the edges they actually measure a constant diameter, also the old symbols for Pound, shilling and penny were £sd or Lsd the term £sd (or Lsd) for pounds, shillings and pence referred to the Roman words libra, solidus, and denarius.

I've literally just noticed why the old victorian bicycle was called a Penny farthing (penny -large wheel at the front, farthing - little wheel at the back) man do I feel dumb!

She didn't give you the slang terms for the old currency: a shilling was referred to as a bob, a sixpence was a tanner and a threepenny piece was called a thrupny bit (also used in rhyming slang). There were also slang terms for amounts of pounds:, a pony is £25, a ton is £100, a monkey is £500, just so you could be more confused!

I was nine when decimalisation happened. I actually prefer the old £/s/d system because twelve is divisible by more numbers than ten. There's loads more slang terms for notes and coins (for example the old 6d coin was a "tanner", a 12d coin was a "bob", hence a ten shilling note was commonly called "ten bob"). Slang terms for money can be fun (£10 = "a cockle", £25 = "a pony", £500 = "a monkey", etc) and constantly evolving. Recently I note that £1000 is now commonly referred to as "a bag".

A farthing used to have a wren (a small bird) on the obverse side. Also interesting fact, see how the queen faces left, on coins, it alternated for different monarchs, so her dad was facing the other way as will Charles.

Different sizes and different colours to help visually impaired people. There are also raised nodules for the completely blind to recognise the different notes

There is a lot of information missing, in what we call “old money” the three penny coin was pronounced Threp-knee or thrup-knee not three-penny and a two penny coin was called a tuppance! A shilling is also know as a bob, and a florin was also call two bob and then like shillings you’d say give us 10 bob or can I borrow 15 bob! There is also a number of slang words for new money, £20 is a score, £50 is a bullseye. That is the biggest note in circulation although there has been a note of a billion pound butt for transfers between banking establishments. We also have slang for amounts that are not bank notes, a pony is £25, £100 is called a ton, £500 is a monkey and £1000 is a grand or a bag of sand, some of these were originally regional but have become quite widespread now!

$100 is about £60 so there wouldn’t be much point having a £100 note, plus chip and pin and now contactless have long been way more widespread for much longer than the US so we’ve been more of a cashless society than the US for much longer. I think our divisions of money are absolutely spot on for being able to cover most combinations while generally minimising the amount of notes/bills you need