 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) and denier (d). Until 1816 another similar system was used in the Netherlands, consisting of the gulden (G), stuiver (s; 1/20 G) and duit, (d; 1/8 s or 1/160 G).
- For an extensive list of historical pre-decimal coin denominations, see List of British banknotes and coins.
In the years just prior to decimalisation, the circulating British coins were:
- Half crown (2/6)
- Florin or two shillings (2/-)
- Shilling (1/-)
- Sixpence (6d)
- Threepence (3d) (usually pronounced "threppence", "thruppence", "threp-unny bit" or similar)
- Penny (1d)
- Halfpenny (½d) (usually pronounced HAY-p'nee)
The crown, half crown, florin, shilling and sixpence were cupro-nickel coins (in historical times silver or silver alloy); the penny, halfpenny and farthing were bronze; and the threepence was a twelve-sided nickel-brass coin (historically it was a small silver coin).
Some of the pre-decimalisation coins with exact decimal equivalent values continued in use after 1971 alongside the new coins, albeit with new names (the shilling became equivalent to the 5p coin, with the florin equating to 10p), and the others were withdrawn almost immediately. The use of florins and shillings as legal tender in this way ended in 1990 and 1992 when the 5p and 10p coins were replaced with smaller versions. Indeed, while pre-decimalisation shillings were used as 5p coins, for a while after decimalisation many people continued to call the new 5p coin a shilling, since it remained 1/20 of a pound, but was now worth 5p instead of 12d. The pre-decimalisation sixpence, also known as a sixpenny bit or sixpenny piece, was rated at 2½p, but was demonetised in 1980.
|Five pounds||Two pounds||Sovereign
|Crown||Half crown||Florin||Shilling||Sixpence||Groat||Threepence||Penny||Halfpenny||Farthing||Half farthing||Third farthing||Quarter farthing|
|Five pounds||1||2 1/2||5||20||40||50||100||200||300||400||1200||2400||4800||9600||14400||19200|
Slang and everyday usage
Some pre-decimalisation coins or denominations became commonly known by colloquial and slang terms,