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Money
Dollars
The US dollar is made up of 100 cents. The Department of the Treasury prints bills (=paper money) in various denominations (=values): $1, $2, $5, $ 10, $20, $50 and $ 100. US bills are all the same size, whatever their value, and measure about 2x6 inches (6.5x15.5 centimetres). All are green and so are sometimes called greenbacks. On the front, each has the picture of a famous American. The dollar bill, for instance, shows George Washington, the first US president. An informal name for dollars is bucks, because in the early period of US history people traded the skins of bucks (=deer) and prices would sometimes be given as a number of buckskins. Buck refers to the dollar itself, and not to the bill. So although you can say: 'He earns 500 bucks a week', you have to say 'If I give you four quarters could you give me a dollar bill?'
The Treasury also makes US coins: pennies which are worth .01 of a dollar, nickels (.05), dimes (. 10) and quarters (.25). There are also half-dollars (.50) and silver dollars but these are not often seen. Pennies have a dark brown colour; all the other coins have a silver appearance.
When you write an amount in figures the dollar sign ($) goes to the left on the amount and a decimal point (.) is placed between the dollars and the cents (-hundredths of a dollar). If the amount is less than one dollar, the cent sign (f) is put after the numbers. So you write $5, $5.62,and 62c.
Pounds
Britain's currency is the pound sterling, written as # before a figure. A pound consists of 100 pence, written as p with figures. Pound coins are round and gold-coloured. They have the Queen's head on one side and one of four designs, English, Scottish, Welsh or Northern Irish, on the other. The #2 coin is silver-coloured with a gold edge. Coins of lower value are the silver-coloured 50p, 20p, 10р, and 5p pieces, and the copper-coloured 2p and lp pieces. All are round, except for the 50p and 20p pieces which have seven curved sides. Coins are made at the Royal Mint. Paper notes (not bills), which have the Queen's head on one side and a famous person, e.g. Charles Dickens, on the other, are worth #5, #10, #20 or #50.
A pound is informally called a quid, a #5 note is a fiver, and a #10 note is a tenner. Scottish banknotes have their own designs. They can be used anywhere in Britain, through shops can legally refuse to accept them. To prevent people forging (=making cheir own) paper money, designs are complicated and difficult to copy. To check that a note is genuine, a shop assistant may hold it up to the light to see if it has a narrow silver thread running through it.
The decimal system now in use in Britain replaced the old pounds, shillings and pence, or LSD, system in 1971. Formerly there were 12 pence or pennies in a shilling and 20 shillings in a pound. Many people regretted the loss of the old system and for many years translated decimal prices into ld money. The old coins included the farthing (=a quarter of a penny), the halfpenny or ha'penny (-half a penny), the threepenny bit (=threepence), the 'tanner' (=sixpence), the 'bob' (=one shilling), the two-shilling piece, or florin, and the half-crown (=two-and-a-haif shillings). There were notes for 10 shillings, #l and #5. Amounts were written as #2. 7s. 6d (d is the abbreviation of denarius, a small Roman coin), 5/- (or 5shs), and 3d.
Gold guinea coins were used in the 18th century and were worth 21 shillings. Until 1971 prices were often set in guineas instead of pounds for luxury items, such as fur coats, for the fees of doctors, lawyers, etc., and at auctions, though the guinea coin had long since gone out of circulation. Some racehorses are still auctioned in guineas.
On 1 January 1999 the euro was introduced in the 11 countries of the European Union which supported monetary union. Britain chose not to be part of this