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BS: A buck and a quid

18 Jan 13 - 09:15 AM (#3468055)
Subject: BS: A buck and a quid
From: olddude

OK so back in the early 1800's an American dollar was worth a "buck"
that is a male deer ... so my UK friends, what is a quid?

I am thinking that since we have such an overpopulation of deer here, maybe we should pay off the Chinese debt with deer. We would only have to come up with 17 trillion male deer.

Good idea

so how much is 17 million quid?


18 Jan 13 - 09:39 AM (#3468058)
Subject: RE: BS: A buck and a quid
From: GUEST,999

Seventeen million British pounds (quid) is equal to 27,098,000 dollars US. That is, it would cost you 27 million dollars (US) to buy 17 million quid.

At least it is just now. That will change just a bit either way on a day-to-day basis.


18 Jan 13 - 09:45 AM (#3468059)
Subject: RE: BS: A buck and a quid
From: olddude

why do they call it a "quid"


18 Jan 13 - 09:49 AM (#3468061)
Subject: RE: BS: A buck and a quid
From: Will Fly

My guess is that it comes from "quid pro quo" - Latin for "something for something". Quid is slang for a sovereign/pound, but there's no actual derivation for the slang useage in the Concise Oxford.


18 Jan 13 - 10:11 AM (#3468072)
Subject: RE: BS: A buck and a quid
From: olddude

Thanks Will that makes sense, wondered why it was called that ...


18 Jan 13 - 10:55 AM (#3468092)
Subject: RE: BS: A buck and a quid
From: Charmion

A quid is also a lump of something, such as tobacco.


18 Jan 13 - 12:28 PM (#3468117)
Subject: RE: BS: A buck and a quid
From: Bill D

And bucks can also be 'simoleons', 'smackers' and a dozen other local bits of bewildering slang. (a thousand of either makes a 'grand'...etc.)
I'm not surprised people USE clever slang, but I am frustrated at times when they have little idea how to translate into standard-speak.

(American gangster slang is/was full of cute euphemisms )


18 Jan 13 - 12:58 PM (#3468122)
Subject: RE: BS: A buck and a quid
From: Pete Jennings

Common UK phrase, when something costs a pound over 5 pounds: A sick squid.

Anything similar for bucks?


18 Jan 13 - 01:07 PM (#3468127)
Subject: RE: BS: A buck and a quid
From: Bill D

"megabucks" for very expensive items or certain lotteries.


18 Jan 13 - 01:46 PM (#3468140)
Subject: RE: BS: A buck and a quid
From: olddude

Saw buck for 50 cents


18 Jan 13 - 01:50 PM (#3468144)
Subject: RE: BS: A buck and a quid
From: Charmion

Fifty cents? I thought a sawbuck was a ten-dollar bill.


18 Jan 13 - 01:52 PM (#3468146)
Subject: RE: BS: A buck and a quid
From: Bill D

?? I always understood sawbuck as ten dollars....


ahhh...yep


18 Jan 13 - 01:54 PM (#3468147)
Subject: RE: BS: A buck and a quid
From: Bill D

explanation of origin


18 Jan 13 - 02:08 PM (#3468153)
Subject: RE: BS: A buck and a quid
From: olddude

dang had it wrong for 59 years Bill LOL


18 Jan 13 - 02:09 PM (#3468154)
Subject: RE: BS: A buck and a quid
From: olddude

We use to call 10 or more bills as Fat Bucks


18 Jan 13 - 02:09 PM (#3468155)
Subject: RE: BS: A buck and a quid
From: olddude

Is a half a quid called a squid?


18 Jan 13 - 02:12 PM (#3468158)
Subject: RE: BS: A buck and a quid
From: Bill D

nawww... half a quid is an 'id'..

*ducking behind my ego*


18 Jan 13 - 02:21 PM (#3468165)
Subject: RE: BS: A buck and a quid
From: Penny S.

Ten bob in old money.


18 Jan 13 - 02:24 PM (#3468168)
Subject: RE: BS: A buck and a quid
From: JohnInKansas

so my UK friends, what is a quid?

Notoriously, the Brits have bad teeth. It makes it hard for them to pronounce the initial "s" (and a bunch of other letters).

John


18 Jan 13 - 02:25 PM (#3468170)
Subject: RE: BS: A buck and a quid
From: olddude

Well I like the idea of pounds, all money should still be physical pounds. Then no one would raise their prices cause no one has the back to load lets say 20,000 lbs to buy a car. Everyone's pants would fall down for carrying the weight of the coins ... that would solve a lot of over spending by Gov right and force people to save their money cause they would be too tired to lift it.

Good idea


18 Jan 13 - 02:30 PM (#3468171)
Subject: RE: BS: A buck and a quid
From: olddude

Think about it, if we had to pay the Chinese back 17 trillion pounds of anything, the earth would tip on its side. Instead they would say, no no its ok .. no need to pay us back right. And how could they store 17 trillion pounds of anything. How about giving them a 17 trillion pound coin ... I think it would solve all financial problems


18 Jan 13 - 02:44 PM (#3468176)
Subject: RE: BS: A buck and a quid
From: Gurney

Then the horse-racing fraternity have terms for quantities of quids, such as a 'pony,' and a 'monkey.'
When I was young a 'ton' meant a hundred of anything, but particularly in my circle, miles per hour, and a 'grand' was a thousand.


18 Jan 13 - 03:10 PM (#3468190)
Subject: RE: BS: A buck and a quid
From: beardedbruce

Just as "Dixie"comes from the New Orleans bank notes ( seen in the north, esp NYC) with DIX on the backs ( meaning ten).

Land of Dixie means New Orleans... then the South in general.


18 Jan 13 - 03:37 PM (#3468197)
Subject: RE: BS: A buck and a quid
From: olddude

BB I forgot about that, you are so right .. thank you


18 Jan 13 - 04:27 PM (#3468228)
Subject: RE: BS: A buck and a quid
From: beardedbruce

And I have a 10 trillion Mark note in my collection (10,000,000,000,000 German Marks)

I wonder if I can buy a 992B watch with it?


18 Jan 13 - 04:42 PM (#3468232)
Subject: RE: BS: A buck and a quid
From: JennieG

"Quid" was also used in Oz, until our currency changed to dollars and cents in 1966. A quid was one pound.

Cheers
JennieG


18 Jan 13 - 07:36 PM (#3468299)
Subject: RE: BS: A buck and a quid
From: olddude

BB sure can, I bet we could pay off the debt also with it


18 Jan 13 - 07:37 PM (#3468300)
Subject: RE: BS: A buck and a quid
From: olddude

So what is a punt?


18 Jan 13 - 07:45 PM (#3468303)
Subject: RE: BS: A buck and a quid
From: frogprince

Olddude, don't make me tempted to post the one about the guy who wrote the fishing resort to reserve a panoe...


18 Jan 13 - 07:55 PM (#3468306)
Subject: RE: BS: A buck and a quid
From: Nigel Parsons

OldDude:
A punt was an Irish pound. At one point the english & irish pounds traded at parity (One pound = one punt)but the Irish went their own way, and the punt was no longer linked to the value of the pound.
Norther Ireland retained the English Pound. The South retained the punt (until they gave it up to join the Euro).
Cheers

Nigel


18 Jan 13 - 08:49 PM (#3468312)
Subject: RE: BS: A buck and a quid
From: olddude

Thank you wonder why it was called a punt .. hmmm


19 Jan 13 - 07:16 AM (#3468452)
Subject: RE: BS: A buck and a quid
From: GUEST,Musket sans cookie

I thought it was a buck because people in Kansas have buck teeth. They can't pronounce some words you see....


19 Jan 13 - 07:29 AM (#3468457)
Subject: RE: BS: A buck and a quid
From: John MacKenzie

A punt is the dimple in the bottom of a wine bottle.
Buck and dough?
The £ for pounds comes from the French Livre. This was a unit of French currency. Originally Latin of course 'librae'


19 Jan 13 - 08:10 AM (#3468470)
Subject: RE: BS: A buck and a quid
From: Will Fly

The old term "LSD" for pounds, shillings and pence was from the Latin, "Librae, Solidi Denarii".

That was before Timothy Leary got his hands on it, of course...


19 Jan 13 - 08:14 AM (#3468472)
Subject: RE: BS: A buck and a quid
From: Bee-dubya-ell

To understand the derivation of the term "buck", you need to consider the relative values of a dollar today versus back when the term was coined. A dollar isn't really worth much today, but it used to be much more deer.


19 Jan 13 - 08:27 AM (#3468480)
Subject: RE: BS: A buck and a quid
From: John MacKenzie

There's no antler to that statement.


19 Jan 13 - 08:39 AM (#3468487)
Subject: RE: BS: A buck and a quid
From: Penny S.

To add a music reference...

"Rule Britannia,
Two tanners make a bob,
Three make eighteen pence
And four two bob"

A tanner being a sixpenny piece or sixpence. Originally silver and the traditional coin for hiding in the Chriatmas pudding.

Penny


19 Jan 13 - 09:18 AM (#3468509)
Subject: RE: BS: A buck and a quid
From: GUEST,Eliza

In old Cockney rhyming slang (not so much used now, but not quite dead) a quid could be 'saucepan lid' a 'nicker', or 'lost and found' (pronounced 'lorst 'n fahnd'). A fiver £5, 'Lady Godiva'. It's said that £10 (a tenner) can be called an 'Ayrton Senna' but I've never heard that one. We often called a penny (old money) a 'stiver', as in "I haven't got a stiver", £2 'pair of knickers', £25 a 'pony', £50 'bullseye', £100 'ton', £500 'monkey' £1000 a 'grand'. Funnily enough, five shillings (25p) was always a 'dollar'. That was tons of money to us then, but absolutely nothing now.


19 Jan 13 - 11:25 AM (#3468563)
Subject: RE: BS: A buck and a quid
From: Pete Jennings

And two-and-sixpence was "half-a-dollar", or a half-crown. Lovely big silver coloured coin.


19 Jan 13 - 11:40 AM (#3468571)
Subject: RE: BS: A buck and a quid
From: John MacKenzie

I think the origin of the dollar name, was in days gone by, an American dollar was worth 5/-.
I seem to remember that I got 7/6d per dollar in exchange for some dollars my late aunt Isobel sent me for a birthday. That would have been around about 1953.


19 Jan 13 - 12:11 PM (#3468585)
Subject: RE: BS: A buck and a quid
From: GUEST,Eliza

Oh John, reminds me of the old Bingo call, "Seven-and-six. Was she worth it?" (Refers to the price in those days of a Marriage Licence.) We had sixpence each (2-and-a-half p) pocket money. It bought a Beano, a Dandy and a liquorice skipping rope. You started on one end, and chewed on and on until you'd read both comics. Those were the days.


19 Jan 13 - 03:36 PM (#3468664)
Subject: RE: BS: A buck and a quid
From: Nigel Parsons

Eliza: We often called a penny (old money) a 'stiver', as in "I haven't got a stiver
If I recall correctly, this is from the name for a Dutch coin: Stuiver

Cheers


19 Jan 13 - 04:00 PM (#3468676)
Subject: RE: BS: A buck and a quid
From: GUEST,Eliza

I never knew that Nigel - v interesting. I'd assumed it was Yiddish, or something similar, from the East End.


19 Jan 13 - 07:20 PM (#3468740)
Subject: RE: BS: A buck and a quid
From: Bee-dubya-ell

According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, "buck" is "...perhaps an abbreviation of buckskin, a unit of trade among Indians and Europeans in frontier days, attested in this sense from 1748."


20 Jan 13 - 06:37 AM (#3468905)
Subject: RE: BS: A buck and a quid
From: GUEST,John from Kemsing

And to add to beautifully varied fashions of reference to our money, past and present, there is:-
The guinea, one pound and a shilling, still widely used in horse racing circles.
The "Sov", short for Sovereign, meaning a pound.(Mind you, gold ones now cost an arm and a leg).
The "sprarzy", another name for a tanner.
The florin, two bob.
The "thrupney bit", pronounced just like that.
Any silver coinage appearing at our football team gambling nights was referred to as "snow".
And if you haven`t any of these in your pocket, then you are, unfortunately, "potless".


20 Jan 13 - 07:52 AM (#3468925)
Subject: RE: BS: A buck and a quid
From: Kenny B (inactive)

Whats ?
"tuppence and twapence a groat and three ha'pence a penny a penny and an odd bawbee.

No prize for any one over "21"


20 Jan 13 - 09:51 AM (#3468964)
Subject: RE: BS: A buck and a quid
From: GUEST,Eliza

Does this add up to a shilling, Kenny? Do tell, as I'm dying to know!


20 Jan 13 - 10:23 AM (#3468975)
Subject: RE: BS: A buck and a quid
From: Pete Jennings

That's a good strategy, Kenny, no prize for anyone over 21! Is there ANYONE not over 21 on this site??


20 Jan 13 - 11:31 AM (#3468995)
Subject: RE: BS: A buck and a quid
From: olddude

Me I am just wee lad tee hee :-)
so then what is a farthing (sp) how many shilling is that or vise versa


20 Jan 13 - 11:40 AM (#3468998)
Subject: RE: BS: A buck and a quid
From: Nigel Parsons

A farthing was a quarter of an old penny. So 960 of them to a pound.
That's 48 in a shilling (twenty shillings to the pound)
When we went decimal in 1973 the old Florin (2 shillings) and Bob (one shilling) were replaced by coins of the same value (10p & 5p) which circulated side by side for some time as the value and coin size/material was the same (except for Florins/Bobs from before 1947 which actually containe 50% silver)

Cheers


20 Jan 13 - 12:21 PM (#3469011)
Subject: RE: BS: A buck and a quid
From: Bert

Ya didn't go decimal you went centigesimal:-)

more money talk.

A penny was a coal, rhyming slang for coal heaver - stiver (pronounced stever) Ain't worth a coal.

rhyming slang: Threepenny bits - tits
A silver threepenny bit was called a Joey.
Sixpence was a tanner or a sprazie.
A two shilling piece was once called a florin.
Half a crown was called half a tosh.
A crown was an Oxford from rhyming slang Oxford Scholar - Dollar and they would not accept them in pubs.


20 Jan 13 - 12:22 PM (#3469012)
Subject: RE: BS: A buck and a quid
From: olddude

Thanks Nigel


21 Jan 13 - 04:43 AM (#3469314)
Subject: RE: BS: A buck and a quid
From: GUEST,Eliza

Well come on then Kenny, please give us the answer. I'm so much older than 21, but have no idea what it means. Where is it from, a skipping song? A proverb? Time to reveal all!


21 Jan 13 - 06:29 AM (#3469347)
Subject: RE: BS: A buck and a quid
From: Nigel Parsons

Eliza;
You got it right straight off. A Shilling:
"tuppence and twapence a groat and three ha'pence a penny a penny and an odd bawbee.
i.e. 2d+2d+4d+1½d+1d+1d+½d = 12d - 1s

As for song/proverb etc. it is more like the old
"How many beans make five?    Two beans, a bean, a bean and a half, and half a bean"


21 Jan 13 - 08:20 AM (#3469396)
Subject: RE: BS: A buck and a quid
From: GUEST,Branno

In pre-decimal Oz, a quid was, well a quid. Or a rug, a cracker (as in 'not a cracker' for what I haven't got), a fddley (rhyming slang fiddley-did), a flag or a toad or toadskin, or a smacker. Five quid couldabeen a spin or spinner, or a bluey or half-a-brick. Ten quid, well that was a brick, a salmon or a red 'arry and you were doing well if you had one.
Fifty smackers was a good whack when the shed cut out.
Coins: a shillin' was a bob or a deener (Riverina, Murrumbeena) sixpence a zac (Andy Mac, I'll be back) thruppence a trey, trezzie or tiddley, and yeah five bob was 'a dollar'. A penny might be a bronze or a brum, or a sunburnt twobob, a ha'penny, a mock or an oddie.
Lots of lovely moolah, plenty of spondoolicks, oodle, oscar (Oscar Asche) flush. Flash as a rat with a gold tooth. If you had a grand you could call it a winkie.
Or you could be broke to the wide, without a skerrick, having Buckley's ( a Melbourne establishment, Buckley and Nunne) or not having a brass razoo.

I may be getting carried away. Maybe I should be...


21 Jan 13 - 10:27 AM (#3469456)
Subject: RE: BS: A buck and a quid
From: Stu

Lady = Fiver

Ayrton = Tenner


21 Jan 13 - 11:04 AM (#3469465)
Subject: RE: BS: A buck and a quid
From: Nigel Parsons

Fiver= Harold Melvin


21 Jan 13 - 02:54 PM (#3469556)
Subject: RE: BS: A buck and a quid
From: Kenny B (inactive)

You win the just o/21 prize Eliza
It is ONE SHILLING or equivilent to a one Bob Bit

On an Aer lingus flight to Boston pre Euro I bought a 1/2 bottle of Poteen which cost 7 Punt 50 pence. I gave the steward a £10 note and he gave me a 5 Punt note as change. I was delighted but still havent worked out the exchange rate but who cares.


21 Jan 13 - 03:51 PM (#3469576)
Subject: RE: BS: A buck and a quid
From: GUEST,Eliza

Thank you for posting the conundrum Kenny, I enjoyed trying to work it out. (Wish I was only 21 again! I could see my knees in those days. Now they've disappeared beneath an enormous tum and bust!)


21 Jan 13 - 03:55 PM (#3469580)
Subject: RE: BS: A buck and a quid
From: GUEST

Kenny:
For £10 you got a 7.50(punt) bottle & 5(punt) change, so you got a total value of 12.50 punt for £10.
The exchange rate was 1.25(Irish) to the pound (sterling)

Cheers


21 Jan 13 - 03:56 PM (#3469581)
Subject: RE: BS: A buck and a quid
From: Kenny B (inactive)

I know the feeling I too have large tum and am presently bust.


21 Jan 13 - 04:00 PM (#3469585)
Subject: RE: BS: A buck and a quid
From: GUEST,Eliza

LOLOLOL Kenny!!


21 Jan 13 - 04:32 PM (#3469605)
Subject: RE: BS: A buck and a quid
From: Allen in Oz

Dear Branno

Good on you for that information

When I had read it I realised that I was as " mad as a two bob watch "

AD


22 Jan 13 - 07:10 AM (#3469870)
Subject: RE: BS: A buck and a quid
From: Will Fly

Anyone here old enough to have spent farthings in shops? I remember going up to the corner shop in our village in the late '40s and buying a sweet for a farthing.


22 Jan 13 - 07:29 AM (#3469874)
Subject: RE: BS: A buck and a quid
From: Stu

For our visiting American brothers and sisters: "going for a two-bob bit" has nothing to do with currency exchange.


22 Jan 13 - 10:27 AM (#3469932)
Subject: RE: BS: A buck and a quid
From: beardedbruce

olddude,


"18 Jan 13 - 07:36 PM

BB sure can, I bet we could pay off the debt also with it"


I can only wish!




Before the war, the highest denomination was 1000-Mark, equivalent to approximately 50 British pounds or 238 US dollars. In earl


22 Jan 13 - 10:50 AM (#3469949)
Subject: RE: BS: A buck and a quid
From: beardedbruce

sorry...

"Before the war, the highest denomination was 1000-Mark, equivalent to approximately 50 British pounds or 238 US dollars. In early 1922, 10,000-Mark notes were introduced, followed by 100,000- and 1 million-Mark notes in February 1923. July 1923 saw notes up to 50 million-Mark, with 10 milliard (1010)-Mark notes introduced in September. The hyperinflation peaked in October 1923 and banknote denominations rose to 100 billion (1014)-Mark. At the end of the hyperinflation, these notes were worth approximately 5 pounds or 24 dollars."

10 14th power- 100,000,000,000,000 marks- worth 24 1925 USD (-and each of those were worth 1/32nd of an ounce of gold each, or $53 of todays).

I'll take the 992b.


22 Jan 13 - 11:02 AM (#3469953)
Subject: RE: BS: A buck and a quid
From: Rusty Dobro

Used to buy individual farthing chews or Blackjacks in the '50s.

And from the days when a marriage licence cost the same as a dog licence:

'It was just six months ago that I
Got married to a woman in Peckham Rye.
But I could not have had much sense,
She cost me seven shillings and six pence.

CH: She cost me 7/6d (x3)
    I wish I'd bought a dog.'


22 Jan 13 - 11:44 AM (#3469972)
Subject: RE: BS: A buck and a quid
From: GUEST

The "tanner" (sixpence) was actually a doubled slang term-
"Tanner" was a shortened version of "Tanner and Skin" - Thin
A "Thin" was a(n early?) Victorian nickname for a sixpence.

The 5/- 'dollar' came about because (I believe) the Crown piece (silver before 1947), was approximately the same dimensions as the silver dollar.

And as for quid:
Will Fly states "..."quid pro quo" - Latin for "something for something". ...", quite possible -it's worth remembering that early coins were in silver (weighed in the Troy system, rather than Avoirdupoirs(?)) in which the pount was divided into 12 ounces each of 20 penny-weight (240 penny-weight to the pound - seem familiar?).
If £1 was the ouriginal value of 1 lb of Sterling grade silver* then silver pennies each of one penny-weight seems feasable.

Just a thought.


* An remember just how far back we are going - probably pre-10th Century


22 Jan 13 - 05:14 PM (#3470109)
Subject: RE: BS: A buck and a quid
From: GUEST,Eliza

Oh I well remember farthings. That lovely little wren on them! Black Jack chews weren't very nice, I preferred salad chews for a ha'penny each. Many items were sold in shops for eg 'two and elevenpence three farthings', which of course was just a farthing short of three shillings, but it sounded less. And a penny was a huge coin compared to the 'one pee' of today. We liked to get a bun penny, which had Queen Victoria as a young woman with her hair in a bun.


23 Jan 13 - 04:45 AM (#3470270)
Subject: RE: BS: A buck and a quid
From: Nigel Parsons

Why was a penny like 19/11¾ (Nineteen shillings & elevenpence three farthings)


They were both a far-thing from a pound   :)


23 Jan 13 - 08:33 AM (#3470361)
Subject: RE: BS: A buck and a quid
From: GUEST,Eliza

When I think of the extremely complicated calculations we did in school involving farthings, ha'pennies, pennies, thrupenny bits, sixpences, shillings, florins, half-crowns to be multiplied, divided converted to highest denominator, added, subtracted, and all this at the age of ten or less, I can hardly believe we mastered it, (and calculators hadn't been invented then). But we jolly well did! And don't even think of ounces, pounds, stones, hundredweights, pecks, bushels, gills, pints, quarts, gallons, furlongs, rods, poles or perches!


23 Jan 13 - 11:39 AM (#3470426)
Subject: RE: BS: A buck and a quid
From: GUEST,Peter

My father always claimed that mental arithmetic was easier with the old system and that he never needed a calculator before decimalisation.


23 Jan 13 - 01:19 PM (#3470450)
Subject: RE: BS: A buck and a quid
From: Dave MacKenzie

I must admit that I never had any trouble with imperial measure or pre-decimalisation coinage. There were so many shortcuts available such as a dozen eggs at threepence each are three shillings. I remember feeling relieved when the pound sterling was devalued to $2.40, so 1 penny = 1 US cent. It was only after decimalisation that problems started, and I frequently got the right answer, but with the point in the wrong place, and then I got into IT and had to do everything in octal for quite a few years until we changed to 32-bit and I had to learn hexadecimal!


23 Jan 13 - 02:47 PM (#3470476)
Subject: RE: BS: A buck and a quid
From: GUEST,Eliza

Good gracious Dave! You must be an Einstein to be able to work to base 10, base 8 and base 32! I was always quite good at maths in Grammar School and managed to achieve O Level. And we were always given loads of mental arithmetic by our teachers. They'd point at you out of the blue and ask "Six twenty-fours subtracted from eight ninety-twos?" As you gulped and did frantic sums in your head, they'd use a menacing voice, "Come on, come on, hurry up!" But it kept us on our toes. Imagine youngsters today putting up with that. Many of them would sneer and tell the teacher to f*** off!


23 Jan 13 - 03:47 PM (#3470497)
Subject: RE: BS: A buck and a quid
From: Charmion

In my far-distant youth (circa 1963), I actually learned to add and subtract pounds, shillings and pence, as well as dollars and cents. It was all part of being Canadian and not quite out of the shadow of the ol' Empire yet.

This feat of mental gymnastics helped immeasurably a couple of years later, when the New Math hit me like a fully loaded dump truck. Now, if only the problems had dealt with buying sugar at sixpence a pound and meat at one and fourpence instead of sums in Base 8, I'd have been laughing.


23 Jan 13 - 04:01 PM (#3470504)
Subject: RE: BS: A buck and a quid
From: Pete Jennings

Eliza, hexadecimal is actually base 16: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,A,B,C,D,E,F.

You get used to it after a while. Well, actually I used to work on a petrol station when I was in the sixth form (69-70) and calculating customer's bills in LSD was a doddle compared with octal or hex. Binary was much easier...


23 Jan 13 - 04:44 PM (#3470515)
Subject: RE: BS: A buck and a quid
From: Allen in Oz

If you were prepared to take a risk, it was regarded as:

" In for a penny
In for a pound"

AD


23 Jan 13 - 05:04 PM (#3470517)
Subject: RE: BS: A buck and a quid
From: gnu

How does one convert hexadecimals to ducks and squids, the system of currency for hundreds of years in Atlantic Canada? Along the coast, at least. Inland, in the fly infested bog country, the system was based on moose, caribou, rabbits, pa'tridge and squirrels. 1 moose = two caribou = 400 rabbits = 1200 Birch Pa'tridge = 2400 Spruce Pa'tridge = 4800 red squirrels. All was well until Virginia White Tailed Deer migrated north with the increased access to their required diet which grew after the forests were harvested. There was a movement which tried to get the inlands on the currency of Maple, Oak, Ash, Cedar, Pine, Spruce, Poplar and Alder but calculating with 48,000,000 fuckin alders was not practical. On accounta most everyone hates fuckin alders... 'cept fer pa'tridge.


23 Jan 13 - 07:34 PM (#3470585)
Subject: RE: BS: A buck and a quid
From: Charmion

I wouldn't mind having an alder in front of my house right now, instead of the emerald-ash-borer-infested ash that the City of Ottawa has marked for removal come Spring.

But that's a whole 'nother load of pocket change.


23 Jan 13 - 08:07 PM (#3470595)
Subject: RE: BS: A buck and a quid
From: gnu

AN alder? AN? No such thing as AN alder. It's alderssssssss and you gotta be a snake ta get tru em or a pa'tridge what can fly so as you can eat tha buds. An they are shit fer firewood... they are like the squirrels of trees... rats! Nasty rats!


24 Jan 13 - 04:47 PM (#3470892)
Subject: RE: BS: A buck and a quid
From: GUEST,JTT

The Irish pre-euro currency was never called the 'punt' unless one was speaking Irish - it was called the pound, or the Irish pound to distinguish it from sterling. While Britain was our main trading partner the two currencies were locked, but as the independent Republic of Ireland traded more and more with Europe the sterling link became a hindrance and we cut free of it.

The coins were designed, as far as I remember, by an Englishman, Percy Metcalfe, and are really beautiful.

When Ireland changed to the euro coinage, we took on the ugly bank notes; on the coins, those issued in Ireland have the national symbol, a harp based on the Brian Boru harp. (The different countries of Europe have different symbols on the coins - the most beautiful is undoubtedly the Greek one, with Athene's owl and olive branch, the Finnish euro has two swans flying over a landscape, the Germans have, guess what, an eagle, and so on.)

As for where 'quid' came from, who knows? Maybe it's the sound it makes as it evaporates in your pocket.


25 Jan 13 - 03:01 PM (#3471354)
Subject: RE: BS: A buck and a quid
From: GUEST,Eliza

We were in Tesco's today looking at the vegetables. They had cauliflowers for TWO POUNDS EACH. Two quid for one measly cauli!! Imagine if, in the fifties, a barrow boy had asked two knicker for a cauli. You'd have died laughing and the men in white coats would've carried him off.