Here are some facts about our coinage.
Pennies were first minted by King Offa (of Dyke fame) who lived 765-796AD
The term pound was first used at the time of King Alfred (871-899). It meant a quantity of coins.
The shilling or scilling first gets mentioned in the 8th century.
In 1489, during the reign of Henry VII, the first pound coin was minted. 1504 saw the first silver shillings being produced.
Pennies were made of silver from the earliest times up until 1820.
Around 1066 there were 20 shillings to the pound.
In 1124 pennies were first referred to as starlings or sterling. This was because the Normans put stars (an esterlin) on their coins. The coins were called little stars - starlings.
A groat was worth four pennies and was introduced in 1280.
The word pound appears in Latin as pondus and pund in Old Norse.
The £ sign comes from L for libra - the Roman unit of money. For Romans, an ounce of gold was worth twelve ounces of silver. So there were 12 silver denarius in one gold solidus This gave us the familiar £.s.d headings.
There were value systems other than the Roman one of 12 to 1 for the relationship of silver to gold. Arabs used 6.5 to 1 in their coins, and Goths used 8 to 1.
The first copper coins appeared in 1672.
The first proper bank notes appeared in 1855.
In 1971 decimalization changed everything. There are now 100 pennies (p) in a pound (£) rather than 240d.
Up until almost modern times, the quantity of coinage in circulation changed with different kings. The amount of silver in the coins also changed with different kings. This was important because it affected how much a penny could buy - particularly abroad (and remember trade with the continent was important). The more silver, the more it was worth; and reducing the silver content was a way of devaluing the penny. The quantity of coinage in circulation was often not enough for the needs of commerce, so foreign coins were equally accepted. This was because the amount of silver in each coin was known so an exchange value was easily calculated.
Money used to be called back for re-minting because of coin clipping - cutting the edges off coins. Early technology meant that coins were not exactly round - making clipping easy to do without being caught. There were a number of mints around the country that had to be regulated - so that they used the right amount of silver in their coins and not less. Each King specified the number of grains of silver in a penny depending on how wealthy the country was at the time!
Where did the word dollar come from? A Bohemian coin called a Joachimstaler - usually shortened to taler was used in the UK because of the shortage of suitable coins. The Scots started to refer to their money as talers (because it contained a lot of that particular coin) to distinguish it from English money. In the US, the Scots, who had emigrated there, called the large peso coins talers. They were very similar because the Spanish peso was based on the Joachimstaler. The word taler began to sound like and was soon spelt dollar.
Other coins that have been used in the UK are mentioned below:
The guinea was first minted in 1663 from West African gold, and attained a value of 30 shillings. In 1717 its value was fixed at 21 shillings. It was last minted in 1813.
The mark is first mentioned at the time of King Alfred in payments to the Danes. Its value has changed but was finally about two-thirds of a pound - 150d for King Alfred. The mark was used throughout the Middle Ages in preference to the pound.
The sovereign was first minted by Henry VII in 1489 and worth 20 shillings. By 1526 it was worth over 22 shillings. In 1816 the gold sovereign was worth a pound. In 1914 the gold sovereign was withdrawn from circulation.
The farthing was introduced in 1279 as a quarter or fourth of a penny and made of silver. They did not last long - because of their small size people lost them. They were revived as a coin in 1613. In 1280 the halfpenny was introduced.
The florin was first launched 1344 as a gold coin. It was worth six shillings or 72 pence (in silver).
1412 saw the noble - valued at 80 pence, and in 1465 came the gold ryal worth 120 pence. There was also an angel to replace the noble in that year.
In 1504 a testoon worth twelve pence was produced.
1672 saw the first copper coins.
In Victorian times new coins were introduced. There was the half-sovereign worth ten shillings, a crown worth five shillings, and a half-crown worth 2/6.