Is there a difference between a Quid and a Pound?

Question

Can someone in the UK explain your curency? The different terms have me a bit confused.

Ok, I get it, a Quid is slang for a Pound; but, what is a shilling? Also does the UK have coins that are less than a Pound and more than a Pence? In the US, we have a Quarter ( 4 quarters in a Dollar), a dime (10 cents or pennies), a nichel ( 5 cents or pennies) and fianally the penny. Does the UK have a simular system?

Answer 1

Over here in the UK we have a wide range of terms for our currency and 'quid' is just a slang term for a pound.

The UK currency consists of £50, £20, £10 and £5 notes. The coins are £2, £1, 50p, 20p, 10p, 5p, 2p and 1p. Here it get's a bit confusing as there are 4 different types of bank notes in the UK. Most are issued by the Bank of England but 3 banks in Scotland also produce their own banknotes. The designs of all the notes are different and some Scottish banks produce £100 and £1 notes as well.

There's a whole host of terms to describe currency and below are a few of them...

£1,000,000 - Bar, Bernie (after Bernie Ecclestone who donated £1 million to the Labour party)
£100,000 - Plum
£2000 - Archer (after the politician Jeffrey Archer who allegedly paid £2000 to a prostitute)
£1000 - Grand, Bag of Sand
£500 - Monkey
£100 - Ton, Century, One-er
£50 - Nifty, Pretty Nifty, Bullseye (50 on a darts board)
£30 - Dirty, Bertie
£25 - Pony
£20 - Score, Bobby Moore, Apple Core, Bobby Gentry, Plenty
£10 - Tenner, Wedgy Benner, Paul McKenna, Ayrton Senna, Mother Hen, Cock and Hen, Pavarotti (tenor)
£6 - Poorly Fish (from sick squid - ie six quid)
£5 - Fiver, Lady Godiva, Pam Shriver, Deep Sea Diver, Scuba Diver, Rocket (Stephenson's Rocket was on the back of £5 notes), Jackson (after the Jackson 5), Bluey (the colour of the £5 notes)
£4 - Desmond (From Desmond 2 2)
£2 - Beer Token (about the cost of a pint of beer), Double Nugget
£1 - Quid, Squid, Bin Lid, Nicker, Alan Whicker, Nugget, Maggie (after Maggie Thatcher, said to be thick and brassy like a £1 coin)

Re your edit:

In 1971 the UK decimalised it's currency. Prior to that there were 12 pennies in a shilling and 20 shillings in a pound. A shilling was 5 pennies. Some people still use the term 'shilling' to mean 5 (decimal) pence. A shilling was also called a 'bob' hence '2 bob' is ten pence, a '10 bob note' was a 10 shilling note (no loner in use but worth 50p). There were several other pre decimal coins with unusual values such as a 3 penny coin (threpence), a 6 penny coin (sixpence) and a half penny coin (ha'penny).

When decimilisation came in there was a half pence coin, 1p, 2p, 5p, 10p and 50p coins. Since then the £1 note has been replaced by a £1 coin, 20p and £2 coin have been introduced and the half pence piece has been withdrawn. The 5p, 10p and 50p coins have been replaced with smaller coins.

Answer 2

The standard currency for the UK is Pounds Sterling, or just Pounds (quid is a nickname for the same). The international currency code is GBP. The Pound is subdivided into 100 pence (nickname for pence is "p" since the pence classification was not metric in nature prior to 1971, in which 20 shillings made up a pound at 12 pence per shilling. Therefore 240 pence made up a pound prior to 1971).

Answer 3

Nope. Quid is the slang term for pound.

Answer 4

A British " pound " and the "quid " have come to mean the same monetary value. But, the British often refer to money in general as "qiud", as in, " That's gonna cost you a quid ! " , " You,ve got more than a few quid, haven't you ? ". But the official name for that monetary value is the pound.

Answer 5

You can't compare a man to a woman. Each is different. But a man, and a woman, complement each other. In other words, one man and one woman (together) is one unit. They are a complementary pair.

Answer 6

pounds and different denominations of pence, from 1p up to 50p

Answer 7

nope, same thing

Answer 8

nope the same thing

Answer 9

nothing