On Tue, Jan 28, 2003 at 04:13:56PM +0000, Pigeon wrote: > On Mon, Jan 27, 2003 at 07:50:12PM -0600, will trillich wrote: > > OT: so where's the lexicon that relates quid, guinea, bob, > > shilling, pence, pound and so forth, for the ignorant > > north-americaner? :)
> 1 pound = 240 (old) pennies > 1 pound = 100 new pennies > Quid = pound (slang) > Pence = alternative form of Pennies > Shilling = 12 old pennies = 5 new pennies > Half-crown = 2/6 (2 shillings and 6 pence), 30 old pennies, 12.5 new > pennies > Bob = shilling (slang) > Hapenny = half-penny (elision) > Thruppenny bit = 3 (old) penny coin so (old) 1 pound/quid was 20 shillings/bobs, each of which was 12 pence/pennies, for a total of 240 pence/d; a crown would have been 4bob+12d (60d, or 1/4quid, also 15 thrupenny). (old) 1quid = 20bob = 240pence 1£ = 20s = 240d right? > Guinea = 1 pound 1 shilling. 1guinea = 1£+1s = 21s = trés bizarre > Sovereign = Gold coin worth one pound 1sovereign "=" 1£ how'm i doin'? and the new system has much less romance: 1£ = 100p, woo hoo (no bob?) it's a shame our ancestors didn't use base dozen [3x4]. then the fraction 1/3 would be a nice .4 (and .6 would be a nice half, .3 would be one fourth)... alas, ten engenders much more difficult math. at least hours and minutes use a very workable base 60... > I tend to use terms like "quid" or "pound" because I still > expect pound (£) signs to be turned into hash (#) signs by > non-British equipment. To make matters worse, Americans > sometimes call hash signs pound signs, so asking "did my pound > signs come out OK" can get a misleading answer. Puzzles me a > bit - I thought # was an American symbol anyway - does it just > have two American names, one of which is better at crossing > oceans? (Because "pound" is heavy, and sinks?) "two people separated by a common language," remember. :) americans tend to call things by almost anything but their proper name (at least i seldom get it right)-- and then expect the rest of the world to "just understand"... (here in the american midwest it's as if no other nation ever existed!) sometime in the last decade there was a big push to submit names for the "#" button on the phone, here... "pound" was apparently the winner. hash-mark, number-sign ("we're #1!"), grid, etc... -- I use Debian/GNU Linux version 3.0; Linux server 2.4.20-k6 #1 Mon Jan 13 23:49:14 EST 2003 i586 unknown DEBIAN NEWBIE TIP #24 from Will Trillich <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> : Curious about DISK PARTITIONING schemes? That's a frequent topic at debian-user -- look for it in the archives at lists.debian.org or read Karsten's approach at http://kmself.home.netcom.com/Linux/FAQs/partition.html Also see http://newbieDoc.sourceForge.net/ ... -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]