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2 farthings = 1 halfpenny
2 halfpence = 1 penny (1d)
3 pence = 1 thruppence (3d)
6 pence = 1 sixpence (a 'tanner') (6d)
12 pence = 1 shilling (a bob) (1s)
2 shillings = 1 florin ( a 'two bob bit') (2s)
2 shillings and 6 pence = 1 half crown (2s 6d)
5 shillings = 1 Crown (5s)
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Pennies, farthings, florins, crowns, shillings, guineas....what lovely names!
Father used to revel in them during my schooling in Muthukur. He graduated from Madras Christian College in the early 1930s and, being the last of four brothers, was quite a fop like RKN's father. There was a photo of Father in full suit with a hankie peeping from his pocket. And for many years a tennis racket screwed in its frame was hanging from our wall as a memento of his college years (I never had a suit nor touched a tennis racket other than Father's...it was too heavy for me).
He was also quite an elitist. He believed that only graduates (from his alma mater?) should have voting rights. I guess the present ruling regime would have it the other way round...all graduates starting from the AK (from IIT KGP) should be debarred from voting. How lovely it was in the 1950s when literacy was less than 10% and life expectancy just 31...Congress simply swept the polls all over India.
And now!
I am sure most politicians feel that Indian voters have of late turned ungrateful and it is to be blamed squarely on their literacy. I was under the Left Front Rule in West Bengal for most of my 40 years there and I was watching how they used to sweep the polls.
They discouraged English in schools so that there would be no unemployment...all English-illiterates were employed full-time as party workers, and their food and clothing were taken due care of...all they had to do was propagate party spirit, settle local disputes for a consideration, turn vocal and physical during election time, and write slogans and lyrics in Bengali praising Mao, and later Marx, and then Golden Bengal under the Baamo Froant.
And look what the ungrateful masses there have done to them! Chee chee cheee!
Anyway, Britain lagged all of 16 years behind India in going decimal and many old folks must have had heart attacks for forgoing all those lovely pennies, farthings, florins, crowns, and guineas. And must have struggled with the conversion from the pound that had all of 240 pennies to just 100 pence.
India went decimal in its coinage during my school years on 1st April, 1955. And everyone groaned. We were so used to our British Rule Rupee (a silver coin weighing a tola!) having all of 64 pice (and 3 times as many dummidies):
And all of a sudden our rupee started having just 100 so-called Naya Paise. And the conversion was heart-breaking. Many jokes went in the air suggesting that it was quite like the Free Indian Government to have gone decimal on an All Fools Day.
There were quarrels between us university students at Vizagh and the city-bus conductors. The earlier bus ticket from Maharanipet to the Andhra University In-Gate was two annas. And the new rate became 12.5 naya paise. And both the 2-anna coins and 1, 2 and 10-naya paise coins were legal tender; but it took time to get those new coins. And the conversion left small change in naya paise that were not available, according to the bus conductors. And students felt that they were being cheated of as many as 2 naya paise, which according to them amounted to all of maybe 10 rupees (a whopping amount) for the bus staff in a day.
And there were fisticuffs.
And the government issued a legally valid conversion chart with what they felt were reasonable rounding offs...but the conductors shouted: "No change, no change!". It took maybe all of a decade for the old coins to be withdrawn completely from circulation. I used to see 2-anna coins that were cracked up at the top by a chewing machine to show that they were illegal henceforth...but a few got into illegal channels and became rich collection items for numismatists.
Where there is a will, there is a way...for coin collectors...
Have to stop now...Ishani is waiting to press the Publish Button.
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There were twenty (20) shillings per pound.
The shilling was subdivided into twelve (12) pennies.
The penny was further sub-divided into two halfpennies or four farthings (quarter pennies).
2 halfpence = 1 penny (1d)
3 pence = 1 thruppence (3d)
6 pence = 1 sixpence (a 'tanner') (6d)
12 pence = 1 shilling (a bob) (1s)
2 shillings = 1 florin ( a 'two bob bit') (2s)
2 shillings and 6 pence = 1 half crown (2s 6d)
5 shillings = 1 Crown (5s)
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
Pennies, farthings, florins, crowns, shillings, guineas....what lovely names!
Father used to revel in them during my schooling in Muthukur. He graduated from Madras Christian College in the early 1930s and, being the last of four brothers, was quite a fop like RKN's father. There was a photo of Father in full suit with a hankie peeping from his pocket. And for many years a tennis racket screwed in its frame was hanging from our wall as a memento of his college years (I never had a suit nor touched a tennis racket other than Father's...it was too heavy for me).
He was also quite an elitist. He believed that only graduates (from his alma mater?) should have voting rights. I guess the present ruling regime would have it the other way round...all graduates starting from the AK (from IIT KGP) should be debarred from voting. How lovely it was in the 1950s when literacy was less than 10% and life expectancy just 31...Congress simply swept the polls all over India.
And now!
I am sure most politicians feel that Indian voters have of late turned ungrateful and it is to be blamed squarely on their literacy. I was under the Left Front Rule in West Bengal for most of my 40 years there and I was watching how they used to sweep the polls.
They discouraged English in schools so that there would be no unemployment...all English-illiterates were employed full-time as party workers, and their food and clothing were taken due care of...all they had to do was propagate party spirit, settle local disputes for a consideration, turn vocal and physical during election time, and write slogans and lyrics in Bengali praising Mao, and later Marx, and then Golden Bengal under the Baamo Froant.
And look what the ungrateful masses there have done to them! Chee chee cheee!
Anyway, Britain lagged all of 16 years behind India in going decimal and many old folks must have had heart attacks for forgoing all those lovely pennies, farthings, florins, crowns, and guineas. And must have struggled with the conversion from the pound that had all of 240 pennies to just 100 pence.
India went decimal in its coinage during my school years on 1st April, 1955. And everyone groaned. We were so used to our British Rule Rupee (a silver coin weighing a tola!) having all of 64 pice (and 3 times as many dummidies):
Coins of the following denominations were issued:
- 1/12 Anna
- 1/2 Pice
- 1/4 Anna
- Pice
- 1/2 Anna
- Anna
- 2 Annas
- 1/4 Rupee
- 4 Annas
- 8 Annas
- 1/2 Rupee
- One Rupee
- 5 Rupees (1/3 Mohur)
- 10 Rupees (2/3 Mohur)
- 15 Rupees (Mohur)
- 30 Rupees (2 Mohur)
- British Gold Sovereign, as an emergency war issue, in 1918.
And all of a sudden our rupee started having just 100 so-called Naya Paise. And the conversion was heart-breaking. Many jokes went in the air suggesting that it was quite like the Free Indian Government to have gone decimal on an All Fools Day.
There were quarrels between us university students at Vizagh and the city-bus conductors. The earlier bus ticket from Maharanipet to the Andhra University In-Gate was two annas. And the new rate became 12.5 naya paise. And both the 2-anna coins and 1, 2 and 10-naya paise coins were legal tender; but it took time to get those new coins. And the conversion left small change in naya paise that were not available, according to the bus conductors. And students felt that they were being cheated of as many as 2 naya paise, which according to them amounted to all of maybe 10 rupees (a whopping amount) for the bus staff in a day.
And there were fisticuffs.
And the government issued a legally valid conversion chart with what they felt were reasonable rounding offs...but the conductors shouted: "No change, no change!". It took maybe all of a decade for the old coins to be withdrawn completely from circulation. I used to see 2-anna coins that were cracked up at the top by a chewing machine to show that they were illegal henceforth...but a few got into illegal channels and became rich collection items for numismatists.
Where there is a will, there is a way...for coin collectors...
Have to stop now...Ishani is waiting to press the Publish Button.
***********************************************************************************************************
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