WQPH Correction I Sent And Reply From Lowell Sun

[Scott Fybush]

On 10/27/2011 4:15 PM, Dale H. Cook wrote:
> At 02:50 PM 10/27/2011, A. Joseph Ross wrote:
>
>>> ...Penny-wise but 0.5 kg foolish
>>
>> No,  "pound" in that proverb refers to the British monetary unit.
>
> Correct - it should have been "penny-wise but $1.61 foolish." Perhaps
> the British monetary system could stand to be metricized.

It was decimalized in 1970, replacing the old "LSD" system (1 pound = 20 
shillings = 240 pence) with a simpler decimal system in which 1 pound = 
100 new pence. There were some points of equivalency between the old 
system and the new: the old shilling, 1/20th of a pound, became the 5 
new pence coin with the same specifications, while the old florin (2 
shillings = 1/10th of a pound) became the 10 new pence coin with the 
same specifications. For many years thereafter, you'd find pre-1970 
florin and shilling coins still in circulation alongside the 10 and 5 
new pence coins; the coins were resized a few years back and the older 
versions taken out of circulation.

Are we sufficiently off-topic yet?

s