Can someone explain the old English money system...?

Question

I was recently watching Oliver (1968) and it had scenes talking about money in it. It was very confusing, so can someone explain the old English money system. Guineas, crowns, schillings, farthings etc. I understand the system was decimalized in 1971. How did it work before ?

Answer 1

The pound, was in fact a pound of sterling silver. It took a certain amount of various coins to equal the weight (and value) of a pound of silver. I was serving in the military in the U.K. when the they went to the decimal system and actually operated on the old system for over a year. It takes 12 pence to make a shilling ("bob") and 20 shillings to make a pound (240 pence to the pound. A farthing was a fourth of penny, a half-crown was 2 shillings and 6 pence a crown then equaled 5 shillings. A guinea was a gold version of the pound, but due to increases in the price of gold could be worth as much as 30 shillings.

Answer 2

1=5^0 -> 1 then 2 3 4 =4 decimal 5=5^1 ->10 then 12 13 14 = 5+4 =9 decimal 25=5^2 ->100 then 101 102 104 110 111 112 etc and 112 would = 25+5+2 or 32 in the decimal system Five is a strange number to use but computers use binary which is base 2 or hexadecimal which is base 16