Do You Know the Difference? Shilling, Sixpence, Halfpenny?
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- čas přidán 6. 09. 2024
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I'm 69 years old and lived in a Rhodesia when I was a child and so am completely familiar with pounds, shillings and pence - they don't feel at all "odd" to me, and I could go back to using them immediately. The fact that there are 12 pence to a shilling and 20 shillings to a pound probably seems weird to users of decimal currencies, but when you've used them since being a child it feels completely natural. Nearly all denominations had their own nicknames, "tanners", "bobs", florins, half-crowns nicknamed "half dollars", dollars (5 shillings), and more - tuppence, thruppence ("ticky " in Rhodesia), a "quid" (one pound). The Brits will know a " deep sea diver", a "fiver", a "tenner", a "score", a "pony", a "bullseye", a "ton" , a "monkey" and a "grand"!
TIA
I wish we had this monitary system again!
This was true currency 💲,
Copper, silver and gold!
I suppose some of these still circulated in the US until the 1850s?
Heh, 69
You just reminded me of my mum, she's still said "Rhodesia" and always converted new pence into "old money" it was like she was talking a different language. 😁
"Back then nickels had pictures of bees on them. 'Gimme five bees for a quarter!' you'd say."
It's been a long time since I've read those words! I remember being irritated when reading that because I was majorly into coin collecting as a kid and knew every US coin in existence. I was livid about the bs "bee" nickel
You couldn't get whole nutmeg, only ground. And you tied an onion to your belt.
@@LordDavid04 Well it WAS the style at the time.
Where is that quote from?
@@Serjo777 It's from a Simpsons cartoon.
I love this topic! Glad we don't use them anymore since division was never my subject. But I'm glad to know about them.
A wild Max appears
Yes, eating avocado and bumbo, whilst counting my pieces of eight.
Guacamole and Nutmeg is a nice combo.
I started to love coinage with the Harry Potter series, the name of the money itself was intriguing and to see the buy power of the golden coins and how the Weasly reacted was quite funny.
There's another really good video by a British guy Lindybeige. His video is called Pounds, schillings and pence. A history of British coinage.
Loving this vid as well.
An interesting tidbit about British Coinage since Charles II is that the portrait's facing changes direction with each new ruler but stamps always face left.
Except for Edward VIII (the guy who abdicated to marry a fascist-sympathizing American divorcee). He broke tradition and kept the same facing direction as his father because he wanted to show off the parting in his hair.
"Titbit"
@@johnnypatrickhaus890
TID BIT [tid bit] noun
a small and particularly interesting item of gossip or information.
@@johnnypatrickhaus890 Correct me if I'm wrong, but is that a Great Ace Attorney 2 reference?
@@kellywhite9299 Titbit is the British spelling. Tidbit is the American Spelling.
Also the importance of gold was that even if its face value was equal to a silver coin, there were occasions where someone would insist on the use of gold as a sign of credibility, as willingly using rarer gold to make a purchase was proof you were serious. With few exceptions, gold just has always had a prestige that transcends it technical value.
I like that the concept of the guinea persisted for over a century after it ceased being minted. It equaled a pound and a shilling and was used almost exclusively to measure rich people's stuff like the value of a racehorse or the size of a gambling debt.
still in use today.
Can confirm. Guineas are still used to buy racehorses in UK. They're equal to £1.20 iirc
@@nialprince5989 A guinea is worth 21 shillings, so it works out to 1 pound 5 pence after decimalization. A shilling (1/20th of a pound) was redenominated to equal 5 pence when British currency went decimal.
And to elaborate on the horse buying business, buyer would purchase a horse for the price in Guineas, whereas the seller would receive the same price in Pounds Sterling, the 5 pence-per-pound difference would be deducted as the auctioneer's fee. So, a horse might be listed on the sales block as 50 000 Guineas, the buyer would pay 52500 Pounds Sterling, the seller would receive 50 000 Pounds Sterling, while the brokerage house would take the remainder 2500 Pounds Sterling as their commission.
@@Gemmabeta
The guinea was originally a gold pound coin, which was replaced by the gold sovereign. The value of the guinea was reintroduced as £1 1s (21 shillings) because unlike the pound, this amount could be divided into an exact number of pennies when divided by 7 and 9. Dividing by 7 gave 3s (36d), dividing by 9 gave 2s 4d (28d). The pound could be divided into 6, 8, 10, 12, 15, 16 and of course 20- but not 7 or 9.
At a time when the pound was worth a lot and before instant calculations or even schooling for most, using divisors was commonplace, especially in a time when most people didn't use banks so didn't pay interest. If you wanted to divide £7 into 8 parts, for example, you would learn the number of pennies or type of coin to divide £1 into 8 (i.e. the half-crown) early on, then multiply by 7.
"There's more of a jingle to guineas."
I love coins! Yeah, they're heavy but I like the weight in my hand. And so many coins are beautiful, mini artworks.
Completely agree
I've got a silver dollar thats become my lucky charm I inherited it from my grandfather it was his lucky coin now its mine
They are nostalgic for me, reminding me of my grandmother and her pocketbook, an old leather wallet/coin purse. the coin purse had the metal clasp that snapped closed, and was attached to a folding wallet the had a roomy pocket for folded paper money, and two or three pockets to hold card items - drivers license being one. She always paid with cash and coins at stores, and wrote checks for the bills. The coin purse always had coins, and the occasional button or bead for some reason.
I enjoy coins but Canada has a $1 (loonie) & $2 (twoonie) I can assure you that does cause you to want to reinforce your pants pockets. It's amazing easy to end up with $15 dollars worth of coins.
@@KingBullDogg hang on to it and pass it down to your kids or family member.
Jon forgot to mention the British half-crown, worth 2.5 shillings. It would have been more common than the crown.
Also the florin
@@Mark-xl8gg
Florins came in in the 1840s in the UK, as a first step towards decimalisation. They were distrusted for a long time, as they were similar in appearance to the half-crown but were worth 20% less.
@@anonUK don’t forget the Ill fated double florin
Value of a half crown would usually be written as 2/6, the two being the shillings, the six being the pennies.
@@gwtpictgwtpict4214 You're correct, I'm not used to the English way of writing currency.
I see Metal Detectorist on the east Coast finding King George IIs & IIIs a lot.
Yup. I watch Hoover boys. GIIIs and then matrons. ...
Oh wow what a find
One of my favorite pieces of coinage is the old (pre-decimal) English penny. It;s the one that you didn't show, the "cartwheel". A big and substantial coin, about the size of a crown only made of copper. Very satisfying to handle.
And absurdly large for what it was
When you must Pay £1 in these 1d coins or 240d they're not easy to handle
I always imagined a little old lady wahacking a mugger with a bag full of old cartwheel pennies!
21:30 "cutting this pieces happened quite regularly" . The Russian word rouble originally meant a cut piece of silver, from the verb roubit' = cut, chop.
We dig all kinds of coinage from colonial cellar holes in New England. State coppers, Spanish silver, British coppers, French and Irish coinage. Transitional coinage like the Nova Constellatios and Fugios. And then the US large cents.
And before we minted coins and got on the same page, most of the 13 colonies had their own exchange rates for currencies.
Cutting coins to produce smaller denominations is a very old practice. A bout 18 months ago my (then) six year old granddaughter found a half penny (a cut half penny) dated 1452 when out walking with my daughter and son in law. A very lucky girl! It was just on the ground on the path they were walking on at Buckland Abbey (the home of Sir Francis Drake) near Plymouth where we live.
The UK coinage still has the queen on it and many other counties with kings and queens in Europe have their current ruler on them too.
reminds you who minted it and whom you owe some tax to in return ;)
Even with the Euro each member of the Eurozone mints their own euro coins. The number-side is the same in each member-state but each member-state is allowed to put whatever they want on the other side.
So members of the Eurozone that are a monarchy depict their current monarch on the euro coins they mint.
@@KairuHakubi Exactly. In Jesus' times, He said "Who's inscription is on this coin?" He was answered, "Caesar." He said "Give unto Caesar what is Caesar's, and give unto God what is God's."
@@MissionaryInMexico What da!
And the United States intentionally did not follow that model to emphasize that the President is not like a Monarch.
For a long time we put an image of Lady Liberty on our coins, or maybe an eagle. Using an actual person was a controversial move.
Follow up about buying power of each currency, relevancy to the common person and a mercantile class.
Yea I have no idea what any of this is worth, them being fractions of each other doesn't tell me much.
@@XxMeatShakexX I think I remember in the 13th century, a mounted archer would be paid six pence a day, and an infantry man half that. If you showed up for mustering as a citizen of Frankfurt in 1326 and failed to have appropriate equipment, you could be fined half a Mark, which I think was 4 1/2 Thaler, or 117g of silver, approximately the yearly wage of a craftsman. So you better had a good lance and a helmet when called upon.
Interestingly, silver prices plummeted in europe after the spanish were robbing so much of it from South America, to the point that many european silver mines went out of business, as it wasn´t profitable any more, or started selling the ore unrefined as pigments, lowering their price as well, so churches could have the ceiling painted in blue, which would have been absolutely outrageous before that. Not sure about the 18th century, but I would believe a dollar could get you quite a long way.
Interestingly, the silver 1, 2, 3, and 4 penny coins were generally issued as a set and given as a gift of charity by the monarch as what was (and still is) known as Maundy money.
The name farthing derives from an old English word for fourth part. The word riding means third part; the English county of Yorkshire is divided into three Ridings.
Riding derives from thriding which is cognate with third.
I like the gentle panning of the camera in this one. Make you feel like you're standing around his table while Jon gives his presentation.
Ive been lowkey hoping you would do a video on this. Old english currency has always been something of a headscratcher for me. Thanks for explaining it so well!
Tupence is still used in this century by my grandparents XD
Very interesting! To the hessian Thaler- that one with the Star on it- has its own fairy tale (i guess its called so- in Germany its name is Märchen) linked to it. This tale was written by the Grim brothers and is called Sterntaler - star Thaler. Its about a girl who gives everything she has away to other, poor people and got for her kindness many Sternentalers as compensation from a higher might. And the story behind this tale is about the hessian soldiers. If they die in war, the relatives got a Thaler as compensation for their lost.
Omg, i have been looking for all kinds of coin replica's on aliexpress for 2 days now for educative reasons and I just saw your notification! This cant be a -*coin* cidence-😋
Absolutely not A Ior just our big brother :-)
Voice recognition and targeted content based on your search history definitely not a coincidence 😂
His company sells replicas but theyre not pennies on the dollar, nice though
22:46 - Yes, I'm concerned about my 'bits'!
The original U.S. Dollar and Half Dollar coins were edge lettered, "One Dollar - One Hundred Cents Or Unit" and "Fifty Cents Or Half A Dollar", respectively.
I once owned one where the collar die had slipped during strike, causing it to read, "Fifty Cents o Ralf A Dollar" (they were actually lettered in ALL CAPS).
I have really enjoyed this series on currency
I do too
I agree. Jon Townsend is so money.
Back then they had real money. Today we have currency, or paper bill “receipts” that used to be redeemable for the actual money.
Ashleigh LeCount
LeCount the Money ? :D
In my fifth great-grandfather’s 1803 Will he left my fourth great-grandfather and his son Five Shilling Sterling. He also left the same amount to his daughters, his two oldest sons got 2500 acres, the house, and his relic aka known as mother and grandma! Wonder how much five shilling sterling is in today’s money?
A lot less than 2500 acres!!
@@minuteman4199 yup, that was my thoughts, but women did not usually get anything other than a dower and only if the father was wealthy. I alway figured that was the old boy’s last slap in the face to his son. Kind of saying, “you’re not worth more than the girls.” Of course, Grandpa left Virginia and travel to the wilds of Illinois in 1815 where he lived with Kickapoo tribe. He also changed his surname from Sword to Tipsword.
@FlyingMonkies325 I did the math. I goggled five shilling sterling in dollars in the year 1803. I used a currency converter to take the answer $92.35 into 2021 dollars and it came $2220.45. Still not very much when you consider the old boy’s full estate.
@@kathrynmast916 What a fascinating story!
@@rosemcguinn5301 Griffin was a colorful character. There are a couple of websites that have stories about him and his shenanigans.
Regarding 22:03 silver coin edge clipping. An alternate method for extracting amounts of precious metal from silver coins is known as "Sweating". Silver coins would be placed into nitric acid for a period of time. A portion of the silver coins' surface would be dissolved into the nitric acid. Thereafter the lightened silver coins would spent at their full face value to unsuspecting recipients. The dissolved silver in the nitric acid can be recovered by adding in lye and then adding in sugar. The silver in the solution would precipitate out to the bottom as silver powder. It would then be melted down to make a silver bullion ingot.
Well yeah. I grew up with £SD. I still convert in my head.
Because of your and Lindybeige's currency videos, I have been able to apply another level of realism into my hobby stories.
As a coin collector I appreciate 18th century British coins are some of the favorites in my collection.
"I would gladly pay you a Crown tomorrow for a hamburger today."
Two bits, four bits, six bits a dollar all for (insert team name here) stand up and holler
Hadn't heard that one before. I kept thinking of Shave and haircut 2 bits.
@@violetopal6264 I've only recently read about the true meaning of "bits", regarding ready money, thanks to Mr. Townsend! Even when I was a kid I would hear that local expression spoken but nobody would ever deign to explain to me what it meant.
In the SW part of the US, back when I was in my teens, one of the cheers used then went like this: "Two bits, four bits, six bits, a peso! All for (name of school) stand up and say so!" History does have a way of sticking with us sometimes, in subtle ways, doesn't it?
I lived in England for years and collected these coins, and even collected (I am an extreme numismatist) many coins that were in circulation from our current times to back to the 1700's. In the early and mid 1980's when I arrived in England, it was still a very strange and archaic plethora of exotic seeming coins. Which, I still have. This video was particularly interesting to me. 💪👍
One thing you might have picked up on, the profile of the monarchs on British coins alternates, one faces right and the next faces left. I think this might be to make it easier to notice the change, since fathers and sons tend to look a lot alike you might not immediately be able to tell the difference between one face and the other if they're both profiles in the same direction, especially on such a tiny coin. Although I can imagine the three times there's been a queen that's been immediately obvious.
We talk about pre-decimal British coinage being confusing but there are things about the US system that aren't obvious. For instance the dime is smallest but it's worth more than a nickel or a penny, and nowhere on the coin is it written that it's worth ten cents, it just says one dime and expects you to know. Even if you speak English really well you still might not get that if you come from a foreign country.
The thing with the dime, though you may already know, is that it was a silver coin far longer than the nickel, which was, well, made of nickel. There used to be a half dime, and half dimes and nickels circulated together for some time in the 1860s. The dime's small size is a holdover from that!
I do agree though, it's not exactly intuitive.
This series has been awesome! I started getting into coin/precious metals collecting over the last year, and it was really cool to learn more about the Spanish copper cob pieces I picked up! Keep up the awesome work!
I love your Videos . Huge fan from Germany. How about a Video about old urban U.S Legends handed down once upon a time in the 18th century? That would be awesome
You mentioned that the silver Crown was roughly the same size of a US silver dollar, it was also sometimes called a dollar ( many were overstruck captured Spanish pieces of eight, the "Spanish Dollar," making them silver dollars lol
I remember a character from a 1970's British comedy complaining about someone in charge, (Maybe the Prime Minister at that time?) and refered to him as, "The same bloke that made us have decimal coinage." 💰
Great video. I've been into numismatics for 40 years. I have a family that has pretty much been in the same place in "Cherokee territory" of South Carolina since 1732 (documented), and I found a Chain Cent and a Capped Bust in my grandma's "rambling drawer" in the tall boy. Hooked for ever since. Only thing I couldn't find were Colonial coinage, just post Era stuff.
As a chef, I'm most intrigued by the culinary stuff, but the history bug got me at a young age and all this excites me.
Actually thinking of opening a place called "A Taste In Time" where we do menus based on historical dishes from Roman to Colonial...
Very cool.
I owned a 1794 Cent years back and a Fugio.
I always enjoyed holding the Fugio in hand, a somewhat worn but nice chocolate brown example, and contemplating its history. They were of Ben Franklin design and were (allegedly) coined of copper bands from powder kegs sent by France to support the Revolution.
My TsaLaGi (Cherokee) forbears were from the Dahlonega, Georgia area.
Thank You! I never knew the source of the term ‘bit’ but I have heard it used recently when someone asked for two bits meaning a quarter!
The Crown and half crown were in my youth (I'm 70)called dollars and hald dollars- shillings were a 'Bob' and sixpence a 'tanner' :up to 1970 when Britain went decimal, always used to check our change hoping to find a 1933 penny which was worth thousands (then!) pennies daat§ing back to 1840 were'nt uncommon only the monarchs head changed :) silver cois were common untill mid ww1 :)
A friend regularly gets brand new $2 bills from the bank. He thinks it's great to pay with them just to confuse people.
Thanks, I always heard the term "two bits" even in movies during the 1940s and 1950s and realize it was a quarter but I did not know why.
Yeah, I knew "two-bit" means "cheap" but never knew why.
Great video.
British youtuber Lindybeige has a similar really good video on the same subject.
It's called "Pounds, schillings and pence. The history of British coinage"
Definitely worth a watch.
Did you forget about the Half Crown (worth 2s 6d) or the Farthing; 4 for a Penny. We used to call the Half Crown, Half a Dollar. Three Groats per Shilling. 12 Pennies to a Shilling. Two Shilling peice. 144 Pennies in a Pound. Still convert in my head when I am in the shops. 10p is worth 2 Shillings. 5p is a Shilling etc etc etc.
144? You've been robbed mate.
@@andrewholdaway813 Just testing! Ha ha. Unless we have a gross of pennies.
@@jonsnell4751
12 bob to the gross 😎
Being a coin channel myself, I have seen many of these over the year's metal Detecting great video thank you for sharing all the best cheers from Canada!
You guys are smart, using Loonies and Toonies, ditching the Dollar Note.
@@-oiiio-3993 Longer lasting, all the best cheers!
@@SuperNmolnar Absolutely.
Have a good one.
@@-oiiio-3993 👍👍
This video made me sixpence none the richer, but at least I know more than I did before.
Good reference!
I was, almost verbatim, about to say the same. Thank you, comrade.
😀Does anyone else want to be in that house, smoke a pipe, drink, and listen to him as he teaches you all the history he knows? I know i do!!
Gimme some laughing tobacco and I'm sure in
@@KingBullDogg never heard it being called that one before. I'm gonna call it that from now on🤣👌🏻
My rum casked baccy and clay pipe are ready! I may need to borrow a cocked hat and a waistcoat but other than that!
I do for sure minus the smoke but I'll take the drink. John does a great job at explaining history.
@@clintthompson4100 I feel like you're obligated to smoke if youre in an environment like that
I'm glad you're doing more on currency. I hope you explore bank systems, early adoption of lending and trade that would be great.
Fascinating. Thank you so much for sharing. The history of money and commerce can tell us so much about where we have been, how we got to where we are now, and where we may be going in the future.
You didn't know, did you, when you started doing the cooking shows, that you had this awesome inner documentary film maker waiting to be unleashed?
We love your videos, have made a number of your recipes, and use your videos as homeschool curriculum
So glad you've explained this. I use hear the rhyme 2 bits , 4 bits, 6 bits a dollar. I always wondered where it came from.
Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography has great examples of everything from a farthing to the French Guinea.
I enjoy listening to this piece of history about the early coinage used in. The 18th century.
I'm not sure the scratches on the French coin are defacement, although that did happen. I think in this case they are flan adjustment marks where the blank from the coin was found to weigh too much so they filed off some metal before striking.
Yay First! I have a abolition society coin from 1799. Been in my family for hundreds of years.
I've been watching these videos for a couple years now and now at least once through out my day l think gee l wonder if there will be a new Townsends video when l get home and if not well I'll just watch a older one.....Great STUFF!!
I've been a big fan myself for several years now, and I still enjoy binge watching this channel's older videos. It's fascinating stuff!
Excellent video as always, but just to expand a bit, we (the British) didn't switch to decimal currency until 1971. I once had my parents explain it to me, and let me tell you, it was a mess.
So today, £1 = 100p. Simple. We have 1p, 2p, 5p, 20p, 50p, £1 and £2 coins (as well as limited issue £5 coins), then we have 5, 10, 20 and 50 £ notes.
Before decimalization?
£1 = 240p. So £1 was 20 shillings, which were 12p each like you say. Then you had 6, 3, 2 and 1p coins.
Then you had a florin, which was 2 shillings, or 24p.
Then you had a crown, which was 5 shillings (so 60p), and a half crown that was 2.5 shillings (so 30p).
There were other denominations in the past that had fallen out of use by 1971, but that's pretty much how it worked.
So then you have the issue of things being priced in pounds, shillings and pence. So something I might be looking to buy might be priced as "two, four and six". So two pounds, four shillings, and six pence.
So I could pay them £2, two florins and a 6p coin. But let's say I paid them £2, and three florins, then they'd need to give me 6p change, which could be any combination of the 6, 3,2, and 1 penny coins.
Like I say, it was a mess.
If only we could get Jon and The History Guy together. That would be a history class I wouldn’t want to miss. The passion and love they have of the subject is contagious.
In the UK, the coins go 1p, 2p, 5p, 10p, 20p, 50p and the £1 coin. Notes are £5, £10, £20, £50 being common. There was a half penny after decimilisation but that was removed during the mid 1980s. Pre-decimilisation was 12p per shilling and 20 shillings per pound.
Strictly speaking 12d per shilling. I'll take my pedantic hat off now.
Before British decimalisation there were 240 pence (pennies) to the pound. A shilling was 12 pence (pennies). There were 20 shillings to the pound. A half-crown was two shillings and six pence, written as 2/6. So a crown was a full five shillings, or a quarter of a pound.
Doctors' fees were often given in guineas (one pound plus a shilling, or 21 shillings). The reason was that the pound (20 shillings) went to the doctor, while the 21st shilling went to the office staff.
I never understood british coinage before, your money series has been soo informative!
I've learned to understand British coinage from reading Charles Dickens novels.
I work at a coin shop in Salt Lake city. We deal mainly in silver and gold bullion but we also do old American coins. Every once in a while we get a client wanting to sell old British coins. They're awesome. The thing I like most and find most fascinating about old coins is, you never know who had them. You also never know what they bought with them. We have some old 1790s coins that I always imagine being owned by Thomas Jefferson or Ben Franklin. Great topic and great video!
The romance of it all.
Thanks so much. I love your story telling. What a great man you are. Much Love.
Bohemia, now Czech republic gave the US dollar used to called tolar. From early Flemish or Low German , from German , short for , a coin from the silver mine of Joachimsthal (‘Joachim's valley’), now Jáchymov in the Czech Republic. The term was later applied to a coin used in the Spanish American colonies, which was also widely used in the British North American colonies at the time of the American War of Independence, hence adopted as the name of the US monetary unit in the late 18th century.
As complicated as the money was for us moderns, the slang terms add another layer of confusion. The buying power is also easily misunderstood. The ha'penny was more valuable than we think. I think the best tool for contrasting buying power is the price on a loaf of bread, but even that has its flaws. (How big is a loaf? How easy or hard is it to research prices?) I've also seen the value of a saddle horse used to compare value across time. This is an endlessly fascinating subject!
As an asside, it is fascinating that English silver could not be sent to the colonies, but after the 7 Years War, colonial taxes had to be sent to England in hard silver.
Thanks guys!!! I absolutely LOVED this episode and will be watching it again. This channel is a great help to those of us who read lots of books written a couple of centuries ago.
This hits all the history spots.
Interesting fact; computers use an 8 bit system. the smallest measurement is the "bit" and 8 bits make a "byte."
Great video! I'm a budding coin collector, so this information is fascinating. I've always wondered about shillings and the like. I really hope I'm able to stumble across coins like these when junking. They'd be neat to have in my collection.
Great video! I'd love to buy one of these coins, especially ones like the Écu, with the scratches from the original owner. So cool!
Just felt like commenting that US denominations smaller than a penny/cent and larger than $100 in the US do exist, in case anyone was curious. Below a Cent is a Mill, which is 1/1000th of a dollar - you'll recognize this as the third "cent" number in a gas station price, but they're also used in finance and property taxes. The US used to have half-pennies worth 5 mills in circulation, but I don't think a singular mill was ever minted offically, but I do know that some 1 Mill tokens made of cheaper metals like tin and aluminum were made for the purposes of property tax payments and in use until about the 1960s. Above the $100 bill are the $1000, $5000, and $10000 bills. They are still considered legal US tender, even though they stopped being printed in 1945 and were officially discontinued in 1969. They were primarily used for money transfers between banks.
The U.S. never did, indeed, produce a coin denominated under the Half Cent, which was produced through 1857 to facilitate exchange with the Spanish Dollar which enjoyed full legal tender status in the U.S. through 1857.
There have been U.S. gold coins of $2.50, $5, and $10 (Quarter Eagle, Half Eagle, Eagle) that were later joined by $3 (unpopular and short lived) and $20 (Double Eagle). Issue of U.S. Gold Coinage came to an end in 1932.
There were 'Fractional Currency' issues of 1862 - 1876 in denominations of Three, Five, Ten, Fifteen, Twenty Five and Fifty Cents, also still legal tender.
What's cool is that there was a 1000 dollar bill produced but discontinued in 1946 but are still a legal form of tender even today
i wonder.. what would a cow cost back then? and other bigger things.
All I know is 2 pennies would get you flour for a week
@@skrimper Alright. So since flour is sold by weight, how much does the average cow weigh and go from there.
Think it would be cool to get a shilling with George III's head on it and a Hanover Taller with the same Gorge's head on it
You made this topic even more fun and interesting than it already was
Jon does have a way of doing that, doesn't he?
This videos on currency make me wonder about another topic: the prevalence of crime in the colonies. Were city pickpockets more prevalent than highwaymen? Was there an equivalent to "white collar" crimes amongst the merchants? I'm sure there aren't hard stats, but anecdotes would be interesting.
Edit: Smuggling alone could be a major topic for a video.
$2 bill still available as well as dollar coins. Great series so please keep up the great work
The US for a few decades also made $500, 1000, 5000, 10000, and even $100,000 bills, only stopping in 1945. The biggest ones were mainly meant for inter-government business, but they also came in handy during WWII. The 100k ones were never released for circulation so even owning one is illegal, but the others were available to some degree. The most common is the $500 bill, of which about 75,000 are estimated to be left, and they sell for upwards or even more than 2x the face value, especially in good condition. These bills, along with all money the US has made going back to its first coin, are still in fact legal tender, although you'd probably never get a store to take something bigger than a hundred. However a bank certainly would allow it to be deposited (after a manager probably spends 20 minutes making sure it's not fake lol). Wouldn't want to do that though of course, as it would be exchanged back to the mint and be destroyed due to obsolescence (or more likely someone in the know at the bank would switch it out for themselves).
All quite accurate.
Awesome channel brother! New subscriber and loving it!
Thank you!
Although the $1,000 bill was discontinued it was and still is legal tender.
Correct.
Last issued 1945 (Series 1934A), recalled since 1969, still legal tender.
4 farthings to a penny, 4 pence to a groat, 12 pence to a shilling, 2 shillings & sixpence to a half crown, five shillings to a crown, 20 Shillings to a Pound, 21 Shillings to a Guinea,
@@GrrAargh1 🤣
Man I love foreign money and all the different shapes and sizes. This historical money is super cool, having it all be precious metals. The penny-farthing bike makes a lot more sense when you think about how those coins look next to each other
I wish my mom knew how rare her 1000 dollar bill was. she put it in the bank forever to be lost in the early 2000s. She got it from our grandmother who gave it to her for vacation spending money back when I was really young.
As a coin collector I am losing my mind watching you rub those coins back and forth on the table like that
Although out of print and worth far more than face value, the one thousand dollar bill is still legal tender in the USA.
I know it's a bit of work to do it manually, but could you possibly put closed captioning on these episodes, or at the very least enable the auto-translate, pretty please? Thank you in advance!
I love coins! Great little episode, thanks for sharing! Also, what a dapper vest today!
We still had most of them when i was a child allthough we only had half a crown, except for special edetion coins like with cherchilll on, the tree pence was refered to as thrupenny peice, There was loads of half pennys, and shillings changed size.
W.r.t silver:
pound sterling - 4 ozt (hadn't been a true pound since before Charlemagne)
crown - 1 ozt, today $25, though would likely be valued at least twice that (in terms of buying power) in an economy where money is backed by precious metals
shilling - 1/5 ozt, (6g, i.e. a denarius and a half A.D.)
6d - 3g, 1/10 ozt, closer to a NT denarius
1d - 0.5g, absolutely tiny, but if used today in a metals-backed currency, a coin with this weight would likely be in common use
Not only was it non-decimal, it also mixed halves, thirds, and fifths, rather than just halves and thirds.
I love learning about Colonial America and the beginnings of the United States. This channel is awesome. I love every episode I've seen so far.
15:37 Born 1769 in Corsica
His family's joy and pride
It is just like a fairy tale
This boy was not for sale
And he never lied, but how he cried
Thank you so much for this !!! I was watching some British movie awhile back, a person asking his pal , “hey, I need 2 bits…!” I was like what the hell they mean??’ This episode explain this completely and thoroughly well!! Excellent work guys!!!
Groat, also known as Groschen, comes from an old french word for a "thick penny", so since you paid 4 pence it would count as a thicker penny compared to the 1 pence
I still remember using the word Groschen when I grew up; it was used to denote 10 Pfennig.
I thought that a groat was the smallest silver coin ever minted in England.
There was the old expression, "As thin as a groat".
Also, in the early part of the 1939 film, "Tower Of London", starring Basil Rathbone, there was a scene where an unfortunate and innocent man was about to be summarily executed, (during the days of the axe), and before dying he faced his hooded executioner, (Boris Karloff), and said, "Here's a groat, the smallest coin I know. Do your worst!", whereupon the villainous and hooded minion of the law completed his gruesome and unenviable task, thereby discharging his legal duty.
@@vincentperratore4395 well the word does originate from somewhere in the 14th century so it probably has had many different meanings in those 600 odd years :)
@@vincentperratore4395 Interesting. However, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, it was worth four pennies, and the word comes from the Germanic word for “great, thick”. But, as you say, perhaps it was the smallest _silver_ coin?
it doesn't come from french though. no idea why you would say that..
0:45 Technically there is.
$500 bill
$1,000 bill
$5,000 bill
$10,000
Are all legal tender. Although none have been printed in decades.
There is also the $100,000 bill. Although that was used as a gold certificate and not available for individuals to posses.
Outstanding presentation sir!
That was a fantastic summary, Jon! (I would have liked a bit more info on the 17th c, as that’s my current area of interest, but beggars can’t be choosers...)
It would be great if you could follow up with an explanation of colonial exchange rates, & maybe then exploring the typical costs of things, using stuff like Bills of Fare, & bills of Sale/ receipts...
The episode I've been waiting for. Many thanks!
So glad you are doing more currency videos....I have a question could you do an episode on law enforcement In the 18th century and who they were and what they did. It's a question I have always wondered
Yo this channel is so chill, it’s like 19th century lofi