British currency in the nineteenth century consisted of coins of varying values. The primary currency used was the pound sterling, often in the form of a gold sovereign. Smaller coins called shillings and pence were also commonly used. A pound was traditionally divided into twenty shillings, and each shilling was divided into twelve pennies, or pence. The two smallest coins were divisions of a penny, into four farthings or two halfpennies. The abbreviation used in ledgers and other financial records for this form of currency was “£ s d.” The pound symbol (£) derived from the word “Libra,” meaning “a pound” in Latin. The “s” was an abbreviation for the Latin “solidus,” which in English was referred to as a “shilling.” The “d” was an abbreviation of “denarius,” or a Roman silver coin, which was also initially used as the name of the English silver penny. While other countries in the British empire abandoned this system, currency in the United Kingdom of Great Britain was not decimalized and standardized into units of one hundred until 1971. (“Pound,” in Oxford English Dictionary, 7:1202; “Solidus,” in Oxford English Dictionary, 10:401; “Denarius,” in Oxford English Dictionary, 3:191; Sutherland, English Coinage 600–1900; see also “Pounds, Shillings and Pence,” The Royal Mint Museum, accessed 3 July 2023, https://www.royalmintmuseum.org.uk/journal/history/pounds-shillings-and-pence.)

The Oxford English Dictionary. Edited by James A. H. Murray, Henry Bradley, W. A. Craigie, and C. T. Onions. 12 vols. 1933. Reprint, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1970.

Sutherland, Carol Humphrey Vivian. English Coinage 600–1900. London: B. T. Batsford, 1973.

The Royal Mint Museum. https://www.royalmintmuseum.org.uk/journal/history/pounds-shillings-and-pence/.

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