I’m watching Foyle’s War these days (another addictive BBC program) and I was getting confused by all the slang used to describe money and decided to make myself a primer for my own writing.
One shilling equals 12 pennies.
A bob is slang for a shilling.
A quid is slang for the pound (which equals 100 pennies)
A half-crown equals 2 shillings and sixpence (or six pennies which is what pence stands for)
One crown equals 5 shillings.
A halfpenny equals exactly that (half a penny) but it wasn’t created till 1971 (and is therefore not relevant to Foyle or Portia Adams)
A farthing equals a quarter of a penny and could be divided even down to a quarter farthing (which was 1/16th of a penny!)
A groat equals fourpence (four pennies)
A florin is a two-shilling coin and the slang is a two-bob bit.
A guinea is a gold coin worth 21 shillings
Any I’m forgetting friends?
