Old Money

I occasionally read stuff that references old money. While I am very grateful to Project Britain for their explanation, I find it hard to hold onto the information because it jumps all around. While stuck in quarantine, I made a list based on the Project Britain page so that it would stick better in my head.

The list is in order of how many pennies each unit is worth

   e.g. a farthing is a quarter of a penny

'Slang' terms are in quotes

   e.g. coppers is slang for pennies

(Other useful non-penny unit) breakdowns are in parentheses

  e.g. a crown is worth 5 shillings or a quarter of a pound

[Abbreviation] terms are in brackets

  e.g. d stands for denarius

The UNITS in all caps are the ones used in writing prices and sums

  e.g. 1l.2s.5d.

The list uses a fixed-width font so that the pennies align

Viola

farthing        0.25d

halfpenny       0.5d

PENNY d.        1d  'copper' [denarius]

half groat      2d 

threepence      3d (0.25s) 'joey'

groat           4d

sixpence        6d (0.5s) 'tanner'

SHILLING s.    12d   'bob'  [solidus]

florin         24d   '2 bob bit'

1/2 crown      30d (2.5s)

crown          60d (5s=0.25l) 'dollar'

1/2 sovereign 120d (10s=0.5l)

1/2 guinea    126d (10.5s)

POUND l.      240d (20s) ** [libra] 

guinea g.     252d (21s)

  ** £coin='sovereign'  £note='quid'

Photo credit

Florin: Leeds Museums & Galleries

Quid: Wikipedia

Survivor

It is the most ordinary of things to survive our parents. Yet I find myself so unprepared to live the experience. Emotions appeared suddenly like squalls in the sky of my mind. Then just as suddenly, there was an equally disturbing stillness. Words fail to carry the true essence of it.

I had the perfect parents.  When I say perfect, I don't mean that my childhood was constant pleasure, or that we fully understood each other. They were perfect in the sense that there was balance. For example, I felt safe most of the time, but I was not in a fake bubble. There were times when I did not feel safe. But these happened in a larger context. I learned the important lesson that I would not always be safe, but there was an intention to provide safety. And there was space to get it right, and to get it wrong. And there was space for taking action, or taking none. And space for not knowing what to do.  And there was space for the waiting and the ripples of the after effects. And there could be love in all these spaces, even if I couldn't always sense it at the time. I am still learning that, really. But the root of all that is from my parents. So my parents were/are perfect, for me anyway. And I am grateful.

Photo Credit

Silhouette: The Swaddle

Rare weather

 

A few days ago, I was lying on the settee looking out the window and thought: wow, now there's something you don't often see... a clear sunny day. So I snapped this photograph. Little did I realise, a few days later, I would be looking out the same window at snow, which we definitely see less often than a clear sunny day...