Well, I learned something new today, I always wondered why the pound sign was an L. Of course, the dollar sign doesn't make much sense either. $ ??? If someone knows the history behind that, I'd love to be enlightened.



Post Edited (08-27-05 21:16)

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You kids with your long hair and Baroque music...

Sense? Rubbish decimals are soo much nicer.

Nicky: When in goodness' name was *that*?! I wasn't speculating but you must be much older than I thought....



__________________________________
'We're all mad here. I'm mad, you're mad." [said the Cat.]
"How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice.
"You must be," said the Cat, "Or you wouldn't have come here."
- Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures In Wonderland

Geez, Martin, I'm only 34. I know this probably makes me twice your age, but I'm nowhere near ancient.

It was in the '70s. And no, I don't mean the 1870s.

Actually, a little research has revealed that the rand reached an all time high of $1.35 in 1980.


Edited for dodgy grammar.



Post Edited (08-28-05 21:16)

Fabu use of that smiley, Nicky.

*curtseys*

Thanks, Autumn, I was rather proud of it, myself.



Post Edited (08-29-05 01:04)

Oh. Younger than my mom then. You're a spring chicken in other words....

And 18 X 2 = 36 so you're almost twice my age....

It's sitting around R6 to the $ and R11 to the pound.

so 34p is about R4 something.

Congrats on smily usage too....



__________________________________
'We're all mad here. I'm mad, you're mad." [said the Cat.]
"How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice.
"You must be," said the Cat, "Or you wouldn't have come here."
- Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures In Wonderland

In portuguese we call 'pounds' 'libras' :)

I always thought the $ came from $ilver Dollar.....

But I could be completely wrong.

I remember Pounds Shillings and Pence too because I'm even older than Nicky. No beard tho'...

Are the parents of baby Thursday also Fforum Goers?

Love the name :-)

I still fail to see how that system made any sense....

240p in a pound? Puhleaze....

Jeni: Severe literary fever on the parents' part.... Good name though.



__________________________________
'We're all mad here. I'm mad, you're mad." [said the Cat.]
"How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice.
"You must be," said the Cat, "Or you wouldn't have come here."
- Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures In Wonderland

Na, it made perfect sense. People were just very good at dividing by 12.



_ _ _ _ _

If the English language made any sense, a catastrophe would be an apostrophe with fur.

Why? We only have 10 fingers on average....



__________________________________
'We're all mad here. I'm mad, you're mad." [said the Cat.]
"How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice.
"You must be," said the Cat, "Or you wouldn't have come here."
- Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures In Wonderland

Everyone in the World is familiar with, and has no problem with, non decimal systems; there are 24 hours in a day, each half (am and pm) divided into 12 hours which are divided into 12 segments 5 minutes long.

Eggs are sold in dozens, the reason being that they are easier to package, 3 x 4 rather than 2 x 5 as 10 eggs would have to be. A standard egg box is 2 x 6 eggs. How do you package 5 eggs efficiently?

10, the basis of metric systems is only divisible by 2 and 5, and whilst good for counting (using your fingers as MartinB points out) is not that great for other everyday applications - whereas 12 is divisible by 2, 3, 4, and 6.

Apparently, book-keeping and accounting procedures were also much easier as a result of measurements being in multiples of three, though I couldn't begin to tell you why.

The only hiccup in the pre decimal system is 20 shillings in a pound. This evolved partly due to the French influence back in Napoleonic times when their newly introduced 'metric' money was based around factors of 20. (Far more logical would have been 12 shillings in a pound, or 144 pennies.)

As with most things, we can blame the French for decimalisation. It was also Napoleon who made the rest of Europe drive on the right; before that everyone drove on the left like us (though not in cars obviously). Bah.

Can I ask you a question, Ptols? Do you just pull this stuff out of your head? or did you google it? or did you study the economics of bygone eras? Because it is rather impressive.



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You kids with your long hair and Baroque music...

I rather think he just remembers it.

Pounds, shillings and pence. Feet and inches. Perches, chains, furlongs, firkins, the Julian calendar.

Ah, memories!



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Some days I see the point

Perches and furlongs, Katie? How could you forget poles and rods! Why else do you think I'm the keeper of the Pointy Stick?

And Tari, it's a combination of the two. I remember stuff vaguely enough to search for it precicely enough to write something definite enough to make some kind of sense. Hopefully.

I just didn't think it was appropriate to talk about rods as a unit of measurement Mr McM.

And don't pretend you don't remember the time when your pocket money was a tanner and half a crown was riches, though you might get to see a ten bob note at Christmas.



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Some days I see the point

But a rod was a unit of measurement!

"Pole
Unit of length and area. Also known as a perch or rod. As a unit of length, equal to 16.5 feet. A mile is 320 poles. As a unit of area, equal to a square with sides one pole long. An acre is 160 square poles. It was common to see an area referred to as "87 acres, 112 poles", meaning 87 and 112/160 acres."

from: [www.fermanagh.org.uk]

And you're right, of course. I am old enough to remember receiving a tanner (aka sixpence) a week pocket money, which I used mainly on purchasing halfpenny "blackjacks" at Bostock's corner shop near where I lived. And a half crown was indeed riches beyond imagination.

This also sparks a memory of when I was in the boy scouts, we used to have an annual fund-raising drive called "Bob a Job Week" whereby we would do a job around the house (or washing a car or whatever) for a "bob" (slang for a shilling). I kid you not, one year the Girl Guides introduced a similar idea called "Willing for a Shilling". Incredibly it only lasted one year..... (would have been around 1965 or so at a guess)

I remember spending a penny for a gumball.