off topic-uk money?

[Andrew Gilham]

In-Reply-To: <Pine.SOL.3.91.951106101651.3208A-100000 at mallard>

> alright now i may be the only one not to know but how much is a quid?
> more than a pound? and what the hell is a pence? your monetary
> sysyem/slang
> is confusing to this alabama boy. please can someone explain -this has
> been bothering me for a while-
> thanks mike psyche

Easy!

"Quid" (plural "quid") is just slang for "pound", like "buck" for dollar,
or "balle" for "franc".

One pound consists of 100 pence (singular "penny", but more often just
said as "pee", for instance "fifty pee", which would be written "50p").
Current exchange rate is about $1.60US=1 pound.

No-one really seems to know the origin of the word "quid".  And there
aren't really any slang words for the coins (like "nickel", or "dime"),
because the system was overhauled and simplified in about 1971.  We just
speak of "10p coins" and so on.

That's all you really need to know.  But there are slang terms for larger
units, eg a "pony" is 25 quid, a "monkey" is 500, a "grand" is 1000, and
an "Archer" is 2000. :)

- Andy

ObCD: Kraftwerk - _The Mix_