Terra L. asks: How much was one shilling worth compared to half a crown in Britain during the 1800’s?
The British monetary system was based on a archaic system loosely based on the Ancient Roman money system. It was introduced to the Britons during the Roman’s long occupation of those isles. The system had has its base the penny that corresponded to the Ancient Roman silver denarius. In early Briton, only a few denominations of gold and silver existed but the many denominations and combinations of pounds, shillings and pennies became solidified just after the middle ages.
The 19th century British monetary system:
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The copper farthing was the smallest denomination and the gold Guinea the largest
- 2 farthings=half pence
- 2 half pence=pence
- 3 pence = threepence
- 4 pence=groat
- 2 threepence=sixpence
- 2 sixpence=shilling
- 2 shillings=florin
- 2 1/2 shillings=half crown
- 5 shillings=crown
- 4 crowns=pound
- 4 crowns, 1 shilling=Guinea
Note that with so many denominations prices were only quoted in pounds, shillings and pence. For example an item costing 2 pounds, 4 shillings, 3 pence was quoted as: 2£/4s/3d (The “d” corresponded to “denarius”) or an item costing 4 shillings, 6 pence would be expressed as: -/4s/6d.
Fortunately for all of us, Great Britain decimalized in 1970. At that point, the shilling translated as 5 pence with 100 pence=1£ .
