For whatever reason I've been thinking about decimalisation. Would you know of any good (esp. satirical or catastrophising) resources I could paddle around in on the subject?
The only ones that come to mind are descriptions of pre-decimal currency, their nicknames and values, and sardonic conclusions about why Britain (and Ireland) avoided decimalisation, with the usual reason being “too complicated”.
IMO “too foreign” played a large part as well, and I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that the British Weights & Measures Association / BWMA (who oppose metrication) has a splinter group or paramilitary paramonetary wing (the Provisional BWMA?) who want Old Money restored post-Brexit. Fair enough; every theme park should have in-house tokens.
Here’s a typical example of “too complicated” from “Good Omens”:
“NOTE FOR YOUNG PEOPLE AND AMERICANS: One shilling = Five Pee. It helps to understand the antique finances of the Witchfinder Army if you know the original British monetary system: Two farthings = One Ha'penny. Two ha'pennies = One Penny. Three pennies = A Thrupenny Bit. Two Thrupences = A Sixpence. Two Sixpences = One Shilling, or Bob. Two Bob = A Florin. One Florin and One Sixpence = Half a Crown. Four Half Crowns = Ten Bob Note. Two Ten Bob Notes = One Pound (or 240 pennies). One Pound and One Shilling = One Guinea. The British resisted decimalized currency for a long time because they thought it was too complicated.”
This list could have added that a sixpence was also known as a Tanner, a pound was a Quid (a Euro is still frequently called “a quid”, at least in this part of Ireland) or a Nicker (never pluralised and never spelt with a ‘k’ because knickers are Something Different) and that there was a Crown coin which was nominally negotiable but mostly collectible.
It could also have been enlarged by adding outdated or regional slang for the currency units: see here, here, here and here for more details of that.
There’s also the curious symbology for pre-decimal money, ‘£’ for pound, 's' for shilling and 'd' for penny, none of which is in English (the ‘s’ doesn’t mean ‘shilling’). Instead it represents Libra, Solidus and Denarius, and would be written in any one of several ways (there was no standard method that I can remember).
£5.0.0, £5-0-0 or £5/0/0 all represented the same amount, pronounced “five pound(s) - the plural sometimes fell off - or “five quid” or “a fiver”.
Incomplete sums looked like this: £7.7/6, £7-7/6 or £7/7/6 - pronounced “seven pound(s) seven-and-six” - or like this £2.3/3½ , £2-3/3½ or £2/3/3½, pronounced “Two pound three-and-thruppence-haypney”.
Sums smaller than a pound were written like this: 3/- and pronounced “three shillings” or “three bob”; 1/8 = “one shilling and eightpence” or “one and eight”; -/2¾ was “tuppence three-farthings”; -/1 was “one penny” or “a penny”.
This used to be what went into a coin-operated public toilet, and you’ll still hear people say “Back in a tick, I need to spend a penny” when going to the loo, even in their own home, although a modern Superloo or Turdis needs rather more than a penny nowadays.
Clearly decimalisation was far too elaborate and complex compared to this ancient simplicity...
Weights and measures are an interesting aspect of worldbuilding, though as the above quote shows, it’s all too easy to fall into parody, and as long as it’s easier to count to ten on fingers, decimal currency works.
The usual style is 10 copper = 1 silver, 10 silver = 1 gold, 10 gold = “where did you steal all this, chummy?”
In warrior cultures you could make a case that the most valued though not necessarily valuable coin might be made of iron or steel...
But all that’s for another post.
