My two cents

[ccga3359]

Before the United Kingdom went to metric money, the Pound was equal to 240 pennies. In those days the exchange rate was better than $2 to the Pound so a British penny was worth about 2 cents.

Grant - I'm surprised the Canadian education system doesn't teach you these things. After all, you are still part of the British Commonwealth, old chap!


Brian

:ootd:

Actually I was just starting my educational career in England when they switched to decimal money, thankfully I didn't have to learn shillings, guinea, soveriegns, crowns, half crowns, farthings, ha'penny & thrup'ny bits, nor the equivilence of chicken, swine or goats. That all ended in 1971 (whew!). Upon moving to Canada I did, however, have to learn conversions rates of muskrat, rubber chicken and beaver pelts.

[piperdbh]

The other penny goes to pay customs duties on seal skin sporrans and ivory ferrules on the 'pipes.

[MacMillan of Rathdown]

So in short, the reason you wear but one tartan is not that you are a staunch traditionalist, as you maintain, but merely insufferably opinionated and cannot afford anymore kilts .

As with just about everything else you have posed on this site you are, once again, wrong. But thanks for giving me the opportunity to (once again) point that out.

[Jock Scot]

I don't think my memory is wrong ,but I am sure I can remember a time when there were $4 to the £1. So I suppose our British thoughts were worth more in those days?

[Bugbear]

I am an idiot.


But I do still have a collection of old pennies. I also have a couple of British coins. One is, I think the equivalent of a nickle and has the Queen on one side and a fish or something on the other (if I remember correctly): 1986. I keep it in a watch fob ment to mount a nickle.

The other is an old copper British coin with has George V on it, if I remember correctly. That one is from around the turn of last century, and has little to no value because someone polished it at one time. It isn't in very good shape and probably doesn't matter anyway.

So, those are my thoughts... I really don't need a penny for them.

[ccga3359]

I am an idiot.


But I do still have a collection of old pennies. I also have a couple of British coins. One is, I think the equivalent of a nickle and has the Queen on one side and a fish or something on the other (if I remember correctly): 1986. I keep it in a watch fob ment to mount a nickle.

The other is an old copper British coin with has George V on it, if I remember correctly. That one is from around the turn of last century, and has little to no value because someone polished it at one time. It isn't in very good shape and probably doesn't matter anyway.

So, those are my thoughts... I really don't need a penny for them.

The 5p coin had a crowned thistle on the back, was silver coloured and about the size of a quarter, the 2p coin would be more equivilent to 5 cent (exchange rate) was copper coloured had a plume of ostridge feathers and was over an inch in diameter.

[Bugbear]

I'm sorry, I didn't describe that well. The coin is almost exactly the same size of a nickle and I have put it in a fob that has a hole the size of a nickle. It's very very slightly larger than a nickle, so I will probably never get it out.

And now that I think about it, I'm not so sure that it is a British coin... but it does have the Queen on it. Maybe I will have someone look at what's on it the next time I go into town.

[Canuck]

I don't think my memory is wrong ,but I am sure I can remember a time when there were $4 to the £1. So I suppose our British thoughts were worth more in those days?

That was in the 1960's

[thescot]

I don't think my memory is wrong ,but I am sure I can remember a time when there were $4 to the £1. So I suppose our British thoughts were worth more in those days?

I believe that in the '60s, the Pound Sterling was the equivalent of $2.80 for quite a number of years; it was very stable for about 20 years or so. That's because the U.S. dollar was fixed at $32 per ounce of gold by the Bretton Woods agreements following WW II in an attempt to stablize and rebuild the international economy. (I won't go into any more detail about the vagueries of finance and the monetary system since it's pretty complex, no one really care, and I'm no expert. But we were educated when I was young!)

So, given all that, I must say that I think the whole penny and 2 cents discussion is probably a product of international monetary exchange rates where the stinkin' banks add on fees just to take you money when you travel. Currently, at about $1.50 to the GBP, it's probably about what you'd have to give to exchange dollars for pounds.

But that was in another country, and besides the winch is dead. (a farthing for anyone who can cite that quote without Googling it.)

[ccga3359]

I'm sorry, I didn't describe that well. The coin is almost exactly the same size of a nickle and I have put it in a fob that has a hole the size of a nickle. It's very very slightly larger than a nickle, so I will probably never get it out.

And now that I think about it, I'm not so sure that it is a British coin... but it does have the Queen on it. Maybe I will have someone look at what's on it the next time I go into town.

Then maybe it is a Canadian nickle. On the reverse is our national fish - the beaver. If this is the case then it is worth exactly $.0000987 US approximately. It's funny I was down in Buffalo the week before last. the first time in the States for me for 20 years. Coming back to Canada there is a toll on the bridge. It's fixed at $3.25 US currency or $3.75 Cdn. I was in what currency I was paying as I was handing her the money. Both I replied 3 American $1 dollar bills and a Canadian Quarter! She would accept it unless I had 25 cents in US coins (my tax dollars at work, Yippee). I had to route around in my Coffee funds to pay in Canadian (had no US coins) for the equivilence of 4 cents Canadian .



Slang for 1 cent here in Canada is a penny, what is it in the States?