Pound sterling - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org

Also, that the Sterling is the longest continuous use currency in the world.

  • maniacalmanicmania@aussie.zoneEnglish
    57·
    2 months ago

    The accounting system of dividing one pound into twenty shillings, a shilling into twelve pence, and a penny into four farthings was adopted[when?] from the livre carolingienne system introduced by Charlemagne to the Frankish Empire.[citation needed] The penny was abbreviated to “d”, from denarius, the Roman equivalent of the penny; the shilling to “s” from solidus (written with a long s, ſ, later evolving into a simple slash, /); and the pound to “L” (subsequently £) from Libra or Livre.[when?]

    I’m out.

    • someguy3@lemmy.worldEnglish
      262·
      2 months ago

      I saw an interview when they switched to 100 pennies to a pound. People were going on about how the old system was so much easier and made so much sense, and the new decimalized system was weird and didn’t make sense. It sounded exactly like when people say imperial is easy and metric is hard.

    • JasonDJ@lemmy.zipEnglish
      171·
      2 months ago

      The joke about wizard money at the start of Harry Potter makes so much more sense now.

    • Quilotoa@lemmy.caOPEnglish
      81·
      2 months ago

      I guess simplicity and user friendly weren’t big concerns back then.

    • jaybone@lemmy.zipEnglish
      61·
      2 months ago

      written with a [long s](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_s “Long s”), ſ, later evolving into a simple [slash]

      Internet sarcasm should take note.

      /