ar, The Falkland Islands and Saint Helena/Ascension — namely the Gibraltar pound, Falkland Islands pound and Saint Helena pound — are pegged one-to-one to the pound sterling but are technically separate currencies. These territories issue their own coinage, again with the same denominations and specifications as the UK coinage but with local designs, as coins of the Gibraltar pound, coins of the Falkland Islands pound and coins of the Saint Helena pound.
The other British overseas territories do not use the pound as their official currency.
25p and £5 coins
Although these coins are in practice very rarely found in circulation, they are for convenience described with the circulating coins, above.
Maundy money is a ceremonial coinage traditionally given to the poor, and nowadays awarded annually to deserving senior citizens. There are Maundy coins in denominations of one, two, three and four pence. They bear dates from 1822 to the present and are minted in very small quantities. Though they are legal tender in the UK, they are never encountered in circulation. The pre-decimal Maundy pieces have the same legal tender status and value as post-decimal ones, and effectively increased in face value by 140% upon decimalisation. Their numismatic value is much greater.
Maundy coins still bear the original portrait of the Queen as used in the circulating coins of the first years of her reign.
The traditional bullion coin issued by Britain is the gold sovereign, formerly a circulating coin with a face value of one pound. The Royal Mint continues to produce gold sovereigns and half sovereigns, with 2013 list prices of, respectively, £495 and £250.
Between 1987-2012 a series of bullion coins, the Britannia, was issued, containing 1-troy-ounce (31 g), 1⁄2-troy-ounce (16 g), 1⁄4-troy-ounce (7.8 g), and 1⁄10-troy-ounce (3.1 g) of fine gold at a millesimal fineness of 917 (22 carat) and with face values of £100, £50, £25, and £10.
Between 1997-2012 silver bullion coins have also been produced under the name “Britannias”. The alloy used was Britannia silver (millesimal fineness 958). The silver coins were available in 1-troy-ounce (31 g), 1⁄2-troy-ounce (16 g), 1⁄4-troy-ounce (7.8 g), and 1⁄10-troy-ounce (3.1 g) sizes.
Since 2013 the alloy used is silver at a (millesimal fineness 999). The silver coins are available in 1-troy-ounce (31 g) sizes.
The Royal Mint also issues silver, gold and platinum proof sets of the circulating coins, as well as gift products such as gold coins set into jewellery.
- For further information about the history of pre-decimal coinage, see Pound sterling. See also Decimal Day.
Before decimalisation in 1971, the pound was divided into 240 pence rather than 100, though it was rarely expressed in this way. Rather it was expressed in terms of pounds, shillings and pence, where:
- £1 = 20 shillings (20s).
- 1 shilling = 12 pence (12d).
Thus: £1 = 240 pence. The penny was further subdivided at various times, though these divisions vanished as inflation made them irrelevant:
- 1 penny = 2 halfpennies and (earlier) 4 farthings (half farthing, a third of a farthing, and quarter farthing coins were minted in the late 19th century, and into the early 20th century in the case of the third farthing, but circulated only in certain British colonies and not in the UK).
Using the example of five shillings and sixpence, the standard ways of writing shillings and pence were:
- 5s 6d
- 5/- for 5 shillings only, with the dash to stand for zero pennies.
The sum of 5/6 would be spoken as "five shillings and sixpence" or "five and six".
The abbreviation for the old penny, d, was derived from the Roman denarius, and the abbreviation for the shilling, s, from the Roman solidus. The shilling was also denoted by the slash symbol, also called a solidus for this reason, which was originally an adaptation of the long s. The symbol "£", for the pound, is derived from the first letter of the Latin word for pound, libra.
A similar pre-decimal system operated in France, also based on the Roman currency, consisting of the livre (L), sol or sou (s)