Understanding British Money: What's a Quid? A Shilling? - I Heart Britain (2024)

British money has a lengthy history, so it's not surprising that it's evolved and changed over the years. Whether you're watching British TV, reading British books, or just planning a trip to the UK, it's understandable you might have questions about how it works. Even among Brits, you'll find many don't understand the older British monetary system – shillings and farthings and whatnot.

Table of Contents

The Modern British Monetary System: Pounds and Pence

We'll start with the easy bit. In 1971, the British government converted the pound into a decimalised currency, which means it works very similarly to dollars and Euros. This did away with the shilling, making way for a system of pounds and pence (pennies). One pound sterling was declared equal to 100 pence.

Instead of the $ sign most of our readers are accustomed to, the pound's symbol is £, and its ISO code (like USD, CAD, AUD, etc) is GBP.

The pound sterling is the official currency of the UK, Jersey, Guernsey, the Isle of Man, Gibraltar, South Georgia and the Sandwich Islands, Tristan de Cunha, and the British Antarctic Territory.

As a member of the EU, they could have opted to use the Euro, but they decided not to. That means that if you're planning a trip that includes Ireland and the UK or the UK and mainland Europe, you'll need to give thought to both currencies. Granted, it's all much easier now that we have credit cards (many of which have no foreign transaction fees) – but for those situations where cash is essential, you'll need both.

As of January 2020, 1 GBP is worth roughly:

  • 1.31 USD
  • 1.71 CAD
  • 1.91 AUD
  • 1.18 EUR

UPDATE: As of February 2023, 1 GBP is worth roughly:

  • 1.20 USD
  • 1.61 CAD
  • 1.74 AUD
  • 1.13 EUR

Historically, the pound sterling has been worth quite a bit more relative to the USD. Throughout much of the 1970s, a single pound would cost more than $2. During the early 2000s, £1 fluctuated between roughly $1.45 and $2. As recently as 2014, £1 was worth $1.70.

Luckily for those who enjoy travelling to the UK, the pound sterling has been weak in recent years, dipping as low as $1.07 in late 2022. Even still, dollars buy a lot more than they used to in the UK, so it's a great time to be travelling and shopping at British businesses.

RELATED: How to Get British Products Forwarded to the US or Canada (When They Don't Ship There)

Modern British Money Slang

Understanding British Money: What's a Quid? A Shilling? - I Heart Britain (1)

The most popular slang term for British money is “quid”. A quid = £1, and there's no plural form to the word. You can have one quid, five quid, a million quid – but you don't have quids. “Smackers” could also mean £1, as in, “He wanted 500 smackers for his stereo system.”

Amounts in pence are often abbreviated as “p” (pronounced “pee”). For example, a public toilet might require 30p for access. If something requires pounds and pence, you could say 5 pounds 50 pence, but you're more likely to hear “5 pounds 50”.

£5 notes and £10 notes are frequently called a “fiver” or “tenner”.

Back to the topic of toilets, if someone tells you they're off to “spend a penny”, they're telling you they're off to use the toilet. They're not literally going to spend a penny. In places where they have pay toilets, you're more likely to spend anywhere from 20p to £1 – but luckily, many busy railway stations have been abandoning the fees in recent years.

British Coins

Understanding British Money: What's a Quid? A Shilling? - I Heart Britain (2)

There are 8 coins currently in circulation:

  • 1 penny
  • 2 pence
  • 5 pence
  • 10 pence
  • 20 pence
  • 50 pence
  • 1 pound
  • 2 pounds

The image above will give you an idea what they look like, but remember that designs can vary (there are quite a few collector's pieces in circulation) – and also keep in mind that the pound was redesigned in 2017, and the older design has been withdrawn from circulation. It was redesigned to reduce counterfeiting, as the Royal Mint estimated that a bit more than 3% of all pound coins in circulation were fake. The new design features a rose for England, a leek for Wales, a thistle for Scotland, and a shamrock for Northern Ireland.

You can see the new pound below:

Understanding British Money: What's a Quid? A Shilling? - I Heart Britain (3)

More recent British pound coins feature a bimetallic design – making it much harder to counterfeit.

There are also some larger coins not in common circulation (but still legal tender):

  • 5 pounds
  • 20 pounds
  • 50 pounds
  • 100 pounds

Until 1984, there was a half penny, and for a while during the 70s and early 80s, there was a 25 pence piece.

British Banknotes

Understanding British Money: What's a Quid? A Shilling? - I Heart Britain (4)

There are four denominations of Bank of England notes currently in circulation:

  • £5
  • £10
  • £20
  • £50

Most people visiting the UK will deal primarily in the first three. At some smaller shops, you may find them reluctant to make change for a £20 note, so it's a good idea to keep smaller notes or coins on hand if you'll be in places that don't accept cards (though in this day and age, most places do).

The Bank of England will be issuing a new polymer £20 note in late February 2020, but the old notes will continue to work for now.

Is there a 1 pound banknote?

To many, this may seem like an “of course not” kind of question – but even today, there are some £1 banknotes still in production and circulation. The Royal Bank of Scotland issues them (even though pretty much everyone uses the coin), and they're also issued in Jersey, Guernsey, and the Isle of Man.

What About Scotland & Scottish Banknotes?

Understanding British Money: What's a Quid? A Shilling? - I Heart Britain (5)

Much like the UK has always had a slight independent streak about the whole EU thing, Scotland has always had its own unique character that many have sought to preserve. For example, some Scots bristle a bit at being called “British”, no matter how technically accurate it may be.

Scottish banknotes are a funny thing because they're not issued by a central bank, and they're not technically legal tender ANYWHERE in the UK. Three retail banks (Bank of Scotland, Clydesdale Bank, and Royal Bank of Scotland) are permitted to print notes, and they're classified as promissory notes rather than legal tender. Go to the ATM of any of those banks, and you'll get their notes.

The designs on Scottish banknotes are all over the place, given that they're issued by three different banks. The denominations (and agreed-upon colours) are as follows:

  • £1 – issued in small quantities by only the Royal Bank of Scotland
  • £5 – blue
  • £10 – brown
  • £20 – maroon/purple
  • £50 – green
  • £100 – red

Who or what is on a Scottish banknote? It depends on the bank and the year. Different banks have issued different series to commemorate various people and accomplishments, including Robert Burns, King Robert the Bruce, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Nan Shepard, and Adam Smith.

Are Scottish banknotes accepted in England?

Scottish banknotes are generally accepted throughout the UK, but there are definitely some exceptions – especially with the older notes. Bank of England notes cease to be legal tender after a given date, but the Scottish banknotes are just slowly withdrawn from circulation as they come through the bank. The banks will honour them indefinitely, but retailers can choose not to.

If you go to an ATM in Scotland and find yourself with tons of Scottish banknotes before heading back down into England, don't worry or feel like you need to change them. The majority of businesses accept them without any trouble.

Understanding British Money: What's a Quid? A Shilling? - I Heart Britain (6)

A White Fiver

Of course, if you watch period dramas or read historical fiction, you're going to hear about entirely different types of money. Now, keep in mind that the UK has more than 1000 years of monetary history, to the point that it would take a book or two to properly cover it all. Instead, we'll focus on things you're likely to encounter in TV, movies, and literature.

Before decimalisation, British money was made up of pounds, shillings, and pence as follows:

  • 1 pound = 20 shillings
  • 1 shilling = 12 pence

Logically, it follows that you'd have 240 pence to a pound. The symbol for a penny was a “d” (for the Latin denarius), and for a shilling, it was “s” (the Latin solidus). The solidus and denarius were Roman coins, and of course the £ comes from libra. The Romans left more than roads 🙂

Historically, pounds came in either paper bills called notes or a quid, or gold coins called sovereigns. Granted, this was a pretty substantial sum of money, so it's not something an average person would be carrying around until the fairly recent past.

It would be pretty simple if it was just pounds, shillings, and pence, but that would be too easy.

  • 1 mite = 1/8 penny
  • 1 farthing = 1/4 penny
  • 2 farthings = 1 halfpenny (pronounced more like “haypenny”)
  • 2 halfpence = 1 penny (or a ‘copper')
  • 2 pence = 1 tuppence or a half-groat
  • 3 pence = 1 thruppence
  • 4 pence = 1 groat
  • 6 pence = 1 sixpence (a ‘tanner')
  • 12 pence = 1 shilling (a bob)
  • 2 shillings = 1 florin ( a ‘two bob bit')
  • 2 shillings and 6 pence = 1 half crown
  • 5 shillings = 1 Crown

Easy, right?? Why would they ever want to change something like that?

And what about guineas? You've probably heard someone talk about guineas at some point, and that's something a little different. A guinea was a gold coin worth 1 pound, 1 shilling. Often referred to as a “yellowboy”, they were typically used for more professional transactions (such as to pay a barrister or artist). That extra shilling made it somehow more gentlemanly.

One great example of guinea usage would be the auction scene in Series 1, Episode 4 of Cranford.

One more random old money thing – if you watched the British TV series Goodnight Sweetheart, you'll remember there were a lot of mentions of “white fivers”. They're a particularly interesting note because they were first issued in 1793 when they made the first £5 note. They remained in circulation with relatively few changes until 1956. Unlike modern fivers, they were printed on white paper with blank ink, roughly half the size of a modern A4 page.

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Understanding British Money: What's a Quid? A Shilling? - I Heart Britain (2024)

FAQs

Understanding British Money: What's a Quid? A Shilling? - I Heart Britain? ›

A quid is a pound. A bob is a shilling of twelve pennies. There were twenty shillings in a pound.

What is a quid in British money? ›

"Quid" is a slang expression for the British pound sterling, or the British pound (GBP), the currency of the United Kingdom (U.K.). A quid equals 100 pence, and the nickname may stem from the Latin phrase “quid pro quo,” which translates as "something for something."

How do you understand the UK money? ›

There are 100 pence in a pound, and coins come in denominations of 1 penny (singular form of pence), 2, 5, 10, and 20 pence. There are also £1 and £2 coins. United Kingdom's paper currency is called notes; notes come in denominations of £5, £10, £20, £50, and £100.

How do you explain shillings in British currency? ›

Until 1971, British money was divided up into pounds, shillings and pence. One pound was divided into 20 shillings. One shilling was divided into 12 pennies. One penny was divided into two halfpennies, or four farthings.

What is the difference between a pound and a quid? ›

💷 Quick summary. A pound is a denomination of UK currency roughly equivalent to the US dollar. Quid is British slang for pound. It's used in much the same way as buck is used as a slang term for dollar—except that quid is also used for the plural, as in a few quid.

How much is a British shilling? ›

According to the information available, the value of a shilling today is 5/6 pence. However, it is important to note that the shilling is no longer in circulation in the UK or its former colonies. The shilling was part of the British currency system before the decimalisation in 1971.

How much is a shilling? ›

The shilling is a historical coin, and the name of a unit of modern currencies formerly used in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, other British Commonwealth countries and Ireland, where they were generally equivalent to 12 pence or one-twentieth of a pound before being phased out during the 1960s and 1970s.

How much is a pence? ›

It's not “a pence"……it's a penny. Pence is plural. There are 100 pennies (or pence) in a pound. So, a penny is worth 1/100th of the current exchange rate, pound to the dollar.

How much is a bob in english money? ›

A 'bob' was the slang word for a Shilling, which was worth 12 old pennies. Following decimilisation in 1971, a Shilling was worth 5 new pence. The old 'ten bob note' (10 shillings) was the equivalent of 5 Florins, or 4 Half Crowns, or 2 Crowns. After decimilisation, it was worth 50p.

What is a shilling vs pence? ›

Shilling (s) – 20 shillings = 1 pound. Pence (d) – 12 pence = 1 shilling. 240 pence = 1 pound.

Do British people still use shillings? ›

The shilling was phased out of the British system of coinage beginning in 1971, when a decimal system based on 100 new pence to £1 was introduced. The schilling was the Austrian currency until 2002, when it was replaced by the euro as the country's sole currency.

Is a shilling like a penny? ›

The British shilling, abbreviated "1s" or "1/-", was a unit of currency and a denomination of sterling coinage worth 1⁄20 of one pound, or twelve pence.

What is one shilling worth in US dollars? ›

According to Walletinvestor.com, 1 Shilling (SH) is equivalent to 0.064528 US Dollar (USD) [1].

Why do Brits say quid? ›

Why do we refer to a pound as a 'quid'? Brewster's suggests it comes from 'quid pro quo', an equivalent amount for something, and also suggests that it originally referred to a sovereign.

What is the oldest currency still in use? ›

The British pound is the world's oldest currency still in use at around 1,200 years old. Dating back to Anglo-Saxon times, the pound has gone through many changes before evolving into the currency we recognise today. The British pound is both the oldest and one of the most traded currencies​ in the world.

Why a dollar is called a buck? ›

Buck is an informal reference to $1 that may trace its origins to the American colonial period when deerskins (buckskins) were commonly traded for goods. The buck also refers to the U.S. dollar as a currency that can be used both domestically and internationally.

How many pounds is 20 quid? ›

20 quid is equal to 20 pounds. "Quid" is a slang term commonly used in the United Kingdom to refer to the British pound, so when someone says "20 quid," they mean 20 units of the currency.

What is a quid equal to a dollar? ›

The pound sterling issued by the United Kingdom is known by the slang word "quid." Like "dollar" for money issued by the United States, "pound" is the name of money issued by the United Kingdom. How much is a quid in US dollar? It is 1.25 USD now.

How many shillings in a crown? ›

The shilling, equal to twelve pence, becomes the common base for the larger denominations. A crown equals five shillings. Situated between these two units is the half crown equal to two shillings and six pence.

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