"There is no-one important on the back of a £20 note." Yup - only JMW Turner, Britain's greatest and most prolific painters. Also featured on the note is 'The Fighting Temeraire', one of his most famous paintings. This ship fought at Trafalgar with Nelson in 1805. You may remember James Bond and Q sitting together and discussing the ship in the film 'Skyfall.'

I'm surprised that they didn't mention in the video that the smaller value coins each have part of a jigsaw puzzle on the reverse side. If you lay them together in the correct order, they show the Royal Coat of Arms. I've always thought was kinda cool.

Years ago, you had to pay one penny to use public toilets, that's how "Spending a penny" became a euphemism for needing to pee. The £20 and £50 notes were upgraded last year, so now they are also made of polymer. The highest denomination note in circulation produced by the bank of England is £50, but there are Scottish £100 notes in circulation.

Fun fact: you may have noticed the £ looks like an L, this is because it is for Libra Pondo which was a weight in Roman times, we may use Pound (from Pondo) but the symbol comes from Libra (also why pounds in weight has the symbol "lb"). Libra is of course associated with the scales (see star contilations) as in times gone by, goods and money were weighed to determine value. In case you did not know, the $ comes from the name Spanish Dollar or Peso - because the Spanish dominated the Americas... and it stuck...

British bank notes also have braille numbers on them. It’s another way of helping the visually impaired to know what bank note they are holding 😊

So the term “to spend a Penny” came from when you had to pay for public bathrooms as it cost a penny in most places (when it started) and the saying has stuck.

we use the £1 (one pound) coin all the time, because we dont have a £1 note. The £2 coin is fairly new and I think it was introduced to help with vending machines. We have a ton of different names for our money and theres probably a lot of names that are local to different areas of the country, like there are for most things in Britain. Pre 1971 we had different money altogether Pounds, Shillings & Pence. There were 240 pennies to a pound. Pounds were divided into Shillings. A Shilling was worth 12 pennies and was known a a "bob". You then had a 10 Shilling note (10 bob) which was half a quid (pound). Five Shillings was a "Crown" (five shillings was often called a Dollar as I think there were once 4 dollars to a pound, though I could be wrong on that one) The next coin was the Half Crown worth 2 shillings and 6 pence, this was often called a "half a'dollar" Then there was the "2 bob bit" witch was the 2 shilling piece (A "bit" was any single coin) Then it was the Shilling (1 bob) next was the 6 penny piece (for ever known as a "Tanner") Then the 3 penny piece (the "thru'penny bit..... cockney rhyming slang for the shits) Then came the Penny, next it was the half penny ("ha'penny") and lastly the Farthing which was a quarter of a penny.....The old money system was known as LSD (no not that LSD) and was in some ways better than the decimal currency we have now, because being made up of units of 12 meant that it could be divided in more ways than the decimal system of 10 (the pound cannot be divided equally by three as there is no coin worth a third of a penny)........phew! I need a lie down after that

You could call a £20 note A Score, and a £50 note A Bullseye. They are commonly called notes here in the UK not bills. Scotland and Northern Ireland issue their own banknotes which are used alongside Engilsh notes.

Speaking as someone who enjoys beach metal detecting on a popular tourist beach, I love the £1 and £2 coins. They give a really strong signal even if they're buried quite deep in the sand. A couple of hours of detecting usually turns up enough for a takeaway dinner and a couple of cans of beer. :)

Quid is just like "buck" for dollar. You probably wouldn't use it in a formal situation but everyone understands it. Also don't forget that you also use words like "nickel", "dime" and "quarter" for your coins, so you definitely do have slang terms for your money! Coins and notes are all different sizes and shapes so you can identify them by feel - handy for everyone but REALLY useful for people with a vision impairment. We also use the word "note" rather than "bill" - a "bill" is a check in a restaurant, or an invoice. The first Charles III coins have just gone into circulation (50p piece) and they'll gradually replace the rest over the next years or decades. All our currency is in 1/2/5, 10/20/50, and it's easy arithmetic. For example, to make 88p you need 50+20+10+5+2+1. For 88c you'd need 25+25+25+10+1+1+1, right? which is a whole extra coin. We use £2 and £1 coins a lot because we don't have £1 notes any more.

Fun fact: if you shine a UV light on the correct side of a UK bank note, it shows a number equal to the value of the note - so a fiver shows a 5, a tenner a 10, etc.

The £20 and £50 notes have been updated from paper to polymer notes since they posted this video. The tiered sizing (£5 notes are smaller than £10 notes which are smaller than £20 which are smaller than £50) is there for precisely to help those with vision impairments. The polymer notes also have braille on the corners for the blind (except the £5, but its lack of braille makes it readily distinguishable from the others). They will slowly phase out the current stock of notes with Queen Elizabeth II on them once they start circulating the King Charles III notes and coins sometime in mid-2024.

You'll notice in the comments, we refer to the 'paper' money as notes, not bills.

I’m a 74 year old Briton and I think in my lifetime things have changed to the extent that when I was a child I considered people who remembered the Second World War as old, whereas at my age I realise that I must be old because I remember the pre-decimalisation currency (decimal currency came in in 1971) and I had actually passed the age of 21 when that happened. I still remember the old system of £sd to four places of decimals (my earliest job was in a Cost Office) which is one of the more useless attainments I have. It had 240 old pennies to the pound instead of 100. What I do distinctly remember is an American tourist being asked on radio at the time what he thought about our changing currency, and his reply was that he found it very confusing! I could never understand why someone from a decimal currency country like the USA would find a decimal currency system confusing! Perhaps you had to be American?

Having the different denominations of banknotes in different sizes and colours is very useful. Having all the notes the exact same size and colour like American dollars must create great difficulties for visually impaired people.

One of the bad things about having polymer notes is how they are difficult to fold, they’ve been known to spring out of you wallet or your hand and then float off into oblivion…..

A quid is equal to 100 pence, generally believed to come from the Latin phrase “quid pro quo,” which translates into "something for something," or an equal exchange for goods or services.

Fun fact: Originally a pound was the value of one pound in weight of silver.

Sometimes folk (mostly from London) use rhyming slang for their money, for example: A Nicker or an Alan whicker ( a nicker can be substituted for quid) is a pound, a Lady Gerdiver is £5 a Big Ben is £10, a score is £20, a Pony (short form of pony and trap) is 25, a Bullseye is £50, a Ton or Century is £100, a Monkey is £500, a Grand is a £1000, there are many more, but these are the common phrases used. Having no money, we would say I'm Skint or they are Skint, same as broke.

British notes differ in size and colour to help those who are partially sighted differentiate between each note. The same way as each coin differs in size and shape. Also the new notes have braille on them. It will take time for new notes and coins to enter circulation with King Charles on however, new 50 pence coins with Charles on the reverse have started to enter circulation.

We do use the £1 and £2 coins quite a lot especially depending where you are. Like paying for a takeaway or in other places that struggle to use card payments. Plus you use the £1 coin to use many shopping trolleys.

There's also some slang for money - a pony = £25 and a monkey = £500. Money's also known as 'bread' which comes from rhyming slang 'bread and honey'. Before the UK was decimalised, 240 pennies = £1

Fun fact: I don't know if anyone has mentioned this but before we switched to "plastic" notes they were not made out of "paper" like the woman says in the video they were made of cotton or "cotton paper". Also she say's that pennys and 5p's are made from silver and copper and that also is not true any more.

The old "paper" money was not actually paper. It was made from cotton pulp rather than wood pulp like normal paper. The colours used for each note are unique to the Bank of England so you won't find these exact colours on anything else and also although the ink used is dry to the touch it has unique properties that mean it never actually fully dries out. Finally, a couple of fun facts. There is a £1 million hand written bank note on display at the Bank of England museum which is technically legal tender and Queen Elizabeth II is the first British Monarch to have their portrait feature on our Bank notes.

For us older people we also had a half pence coin growing up and a £1 note

As a Brit, I really enjoy watching these videos!! I find myself answering your questions out loud lol! You're great, keep up the good work!!

In my area, we used to call a £5 note a bluey. So on and so forth for the rest corresponding by colour. Colour, size, quantity of braille dimples, historical figure on the back, and of course the numerical denomination. So many ways to identify our cash.

The pence denominations was driven by the pricing of common goods. If an item is £2.59 you give the retailer £3 and you get back 41p for example. You start to accumulate all this change. This change can be made up of whatever the retailer gives you. Over time you just end up with all these small coins which becomes a pain in the neck. I have a plastic tub full of low value coins and I think a lot of people do too.

The 10p, 50p and £2 coins also have loads of different pictures on the face side. These represent historical events, people or other significant things in the UK. Fun to collect. Some are extremely rare and can be worth way more than face value to collectors.

One thing they missed out was that the lower denomination coins when put together form a shield. If you go back and look at the back of the coins you can see part of the shield on each one ..... a fiscal jigsaw.

Another note about British denominations is that they all work in 1/2 - whole - double forms, although the 1/2 penny fell out of favour a long time ago. So: Coins: 1/2 p (discontinued a long time ago), 1p, 2p, 5p, 10p, 20p, 50, £1, £2 Notes: £5, £10, £20, £50 There are apparently two different £100 notes, one in Scotland, and one in Ireland, but there is no English equivalent

Certain decimal coinage came into circulation prior to the 1971 decimalisation: I remember all hell breaking loose, back in the mid-seventies when a checkout operator in a supermarket I was working in, accepted a pre-decimal 10 shilling note, (which had been superceded in 1970 by the 50p coin,) assuming that it was a Scottish £10 note.

youll also occasionally get people who still also call 50p coins 10 bob. 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

When I visit the States, where all the notes are the same size and colour, I had to look carefully at each one to make sure I gave the right amount to pay for something.

Hi Tyler, the portrait on the obverse (back) of the notes are of famous historical Britons, which is regularly changed. We also have a £50 note, but it is rarely used. The Notes also have a feature which is only visible under ultraviolet light, most shops have a lamp to check it. There are also several anti forging devices on the notes including a hologram which is quite cool. Also, the notes are of different sizes which is handy for the blind, it also includes a braille imprint.

"Spending a penny" comes from the days when public toilets were not free to use. You used to have to pay 1 penny to use them (the door had a coin operated lock). The money used to go towards keeping the toilets clean and in good condition.

I like these guys a lot better than that last American couple who end up asking the viewer questions because they aren't experienced enough to know the answers.

The Pound (£) is the oldest currency in the World still in use. It started 750 AD - 800 AD in England. The first Pound coin was in 1489 AD under the reign of Henry VII. The Penny dates back to the 9th century in England too. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇬🇧🇺🇸

Before we had the polymer notes, we had paper notes. The serial number for each not was on the same half of the note, this meant that if you tore it in half you could only get the same back as you started with.

'Spending a penny' in reference to going to the toilet comes from many years back when public toilets would charge a penny so the expression became a polite way of saying that you were going to the toilet and has stuck. Also, we have a £100 note in Scotland, it is just the Bank of England that doesn't make them.

The pound symbol (£) derives from it resembling a stylised "L", from the old system of referring to pounds, shillings and pence (LSD) which is from the Roman Livre, Sesterti and Denari. A shilling was equilvalent to 5 pence (5p) and was written as 1/- (like on the Mad Hatter's hat from Alice in Wonderland). Quid is from the Latin (as in 'quid pro quo') meaning "something" or "the essence of". A guinea was very roughly equivalent to a pound, named because it was made from West African gold. It's value was between 20 to 30 shillings (depending on the value of gold). Guineas where used for luxury items; racehorses are still valued in guineas (being £1.05 for each guinea) as are the prizes in horse races. The extra £0.05 was theoretically the seller's commission.

Yes, For those of us who still prefer to use cash we generally use coins more than notes especially £1 and £2 coins

18:48 a lot of old public toilets used to be pay to enter, which was officiallly used to support the maintenance of them. Early ones had the entrance fee as 1p and it bacame a euphemism because of Victorian sensibilities.

All the notes are different sizes too to aid people with eye issues. Also, they changed to the new indestructible notes as it cost the Royal Mint billions to keep reissuing notes due to old worn out notes having to be replaced. Countries who use ‘polymer notes’ include Canada, Australia (in 1998 btw) New Zealand, Mexico, Fiji, Singapore etc.

Some public toilets used to have a slot on the door, you would have to put a penny in the slot to open the door to use a toilet, hence spending a penny was the same as saying going to the loo. Nowadays some have a barrier you have to pay to get through and now costs 20p 30p 50p.

I think a big thing with the £1 and £2 coins being used commonly vs the dollar coin is there just isn't a £1 note like there is for a dollar, the smallest note is £5 which is quite a bit of money and many small transactions are for less. And generally isn't that common to round up and say keep the change when paying, especially as tipping isn't that common and at pubs, cafes, etc. often pay upfront per drink/item at a time rather than have a tab so lots of small transactions rather than 1 big one.

10:22 the only coin currently up dated for his majesty King Charles III is the 50p. Fun fact when a new monarchs face is added to British money they face the opposite direction to their predecessor.

The first polymer series of Australian banknotes was issued between 1992 and 1996. It was the first in the world to be printed on polymer substrate instead of paper. The first denomination in the eighth series was issued on 1 September 2016.

Quid comes from the name of the paper mill that provided the paper for the Bank of England's original notes (c1724). The mill is called The Quidhampton Mill at Overton in Hampshire. It's still there now. Quid became a nickname for a pound taken from the name of the mill.

I can't believe they don't know why spend a penny is an unknown origin to them 🤣. It's because it used to cost 1p to use a public toilet, obv to pay the cleaner or person who looks after them. Cost me 30p in Leeds bus station the other week though😳

13:48 if you look at the coin arrangement for the 5-50, it makes up the royal coat of arms! Also, each coin has a different size/number of sides to make it easier to tell what coin it is when rooting through a purse or smh

In the UK we have a £5 coin, which like the US Silver dollar, exists but isn't widely used.

There is actually such a thing as a £100 note, but only in Scotland. The Bank of England doesn't make any £100 notes, and even in Scotland they're pretty rare as far as I'm aware.

I'm not the only one who was baffled when he said his grandad gives him £50 in a birthday card, right? I literally said "You toff bastard" out loud when he said that

Most simple transactions in England , like buying sweets or something like that, use coins with one and two quid being used most commonly . So yes, they are used very commonly.

I grew up in Scotland,i think our money is pretty straight forward for the most part,we used to have a half pence and they did away with that.Spending a penny,means going to the toilet,they are probably meaning that a while back,you used to have to put a coin in the door of a public bathroom to use the toilet,just like some places you have to put a quarter in the shopping cart at certain grocery stores and you have to bring the cart back to get your quarter back,but you didn't get your coin back at the public bathroom.There is some parts of England that will tell you they won't except our Scottish money and you pretty much have to fight with them and tell them it's legal tender and you need to accept it,they don't think Scottish money is real currency,thanks again for your video Tyler,made me think of home.

Quid probably comes from the Latin phrase quid pro quo we think - since it means something for something

We used to have a £1 note, when are bank notes were made out of paper, but the £1 note used to rip quite easily, so on 21st April 1983 the £1 note was changed into the £1 coin, and for some reason in 1998 they introduced the £2 coin. The 20 pence coin was introduced on the 9th June 1982. The £1 £2 coins are used on a daily basis.

1p and 2p coins were awesome as a kid as we used to go to the shop and get mix ups (bags of small sweets) for like 5p, 10p, 20p etc so you'd save them up and get a small bag of sweets on the way to or from school. That changed it senior school though as then sweets were no longer 1p each and went quickly over like 5 years to like 5p each. Prob alot more now.

Public WC used to use a slot that you would put a penny in to open the door.

The first time I used dollars when I was 26, I couldn't tell the difference between the notes. To this day, I'm convinced I gave someone a 20 instead of a $1 note and they took it and said nowt.

You can actually get £5 coins that are issued for special occasions but you'd have to order or specifically buy one from a bank or through mail order. Most people normally save them although they are legal tender and can be spent. Spend a penny relates to the charge to access public toilets 40+ years ago when you'd put a penny in the cubicle door to give you access.

I like the notes being slightly different sizes because it makes it easier to have £20s at the back, then 10s and 5s as they don't overlap and you can grab the one you want easier

These bank notes are polymer and they really do keep their pristine condition. What was not mentioned is that in the top left hand corner there are brail marks. The £10 notes is a little larger than the £5 note then the £20 larger than the £10 note and I presume the £50 note will be the largest. This makes it very easy to find a note in your wallet and unlike the USA bill which are all virtually identical in both size and almost in colour, it is much easier to spend money. A great shame that. We used to have a £1 note but these days the £1 and £2 coins are perfect. Unlike most USA supermarkets, the UK ones require a £1 or €1 coin inserted to get a shopping trolley, popping out when you return the trolley to its bay. This mitigates people just abandoning their trolley when they have loaded up or walked away with the completed shopping. Oddly we call supermarkets and large department buildings "stores" but all others are "shops" - the American term for a workshop. So we go "shopping". Up to £100 virtually all shopping is by contactless credit card or very frequently cash and that is where our coins come in handy. Though used for £100 or over, the use of PIN numbers went out a long while ago and the younger generation will never have heard of cheques or signing for use of a credit card. Indeed the USA term "paycheck" is completely meaningless to us. I am 83 and never in my working life have I come across anyone who has received their wages or salary by cheque. My first wages in 1957 when straight into my Hight Street bank account and in all those years I have never had to pay bank charges. I think it must have been at least 25 years since I wrote a cheque.

There is no £1 or £2 bank notes, so the coins are very much used. I didn't hear it in the video but Alan Turing is on the £50 note. So Winston Churchill for £5, Jane Austin for £10, JMW Turner for £20 and Alan Turing for £50.

I remember when we used to have 1 pound notes. I got a small windfall, and just to be cheeky (I was a kid) I went into the bank and asked for £250 in pound notes. Felt great lol

I want to mention a few things, in some areas cash is still popular as the contactless payment requires a Wi-Fi or internet signal and in some places it’s very difficult to get any phone signal. Some shops offer cash back as there’s not so many bank branches around in rural areas like there used to be. Cash back is handy as the shops are not necessarily keeping extra money on site as it were. In Switzerland you can get a 1000 Franc note and use it but a few places might be reluctant to accept it has such a high value. American money seems a bit like monopoly stuff and it’s a bit weird to thank many folk live on less than 1$ a day in some places. The bank notes will change but it’s not immediate, the images for money and stamps are stock ones and will be agreed before being issued. In practice the notes are legal tender so no problem there, there’s also the associated industry of machines taking and issuing notes. The features built in have to be included in any update that the machine dispensers have. Not much changes straight away but some changes are more important than others, all politicians have to swear their allegiance to The Monarch. The day to day stuff is automatic. There used to ships that came to the UK with goods from across the globe and some of their phrases probably got absorbed into daily life. I personally keep a small amount of coins to the value of around £5 so I can buy milk and a jar of instant coffee. If I have any thing over it goes in a money bag and I pay it into a Magic Money machine at my bank, I have a contactless card with around £20 and use that to avoid too much change. The different sizes are supposed to represent their value but with the 1p coin and 5P you would have a job to know. There was a time you went to a public toilet and inserted a penny so you could use the cubicle,so that’s probably where that came from. The Red phone boxes used to accept a 2p or 10p coin and that’s why we had them. 2p for local and 10 for elsewhere. You can check this out on KZfaq.

The Scottish bank notes have Scottish historical figures on them, & animals too (like otters!). I love the Scottish £10, as there is a beach scene from my home town, with the church my parents & Sister got married in! 😍 (The astronomer & mathematician Mary Somerville was born & raised in my home town...she's the £10 note famous person!!)

Few points: All the notes they showed are Bank of England notes, which is the most used in England and Wales. In Scotland, we also have notes from the Bank of Scotland, the Royal Bank of Scotland (separate banks, not a typing error) and the Clydesdale Bank. In Northern Ireland there's notes Danske Bank and one or two other that I don't remember the names of at the moment. All of them are Sterling, which is the currency, and are legal tender across all of the U.K. However, it's really, really, reaaaaaaaalllllllly f****** common for people in England to be completely unaware of any of banks other than the Bank of England, and to treat any notes from a Sterling currency bank other than the Bank of England as being fake note (I'm from Scotland and have family in England. This thing with the notes is so, f******, annoying). You'll find that all notes are readily accepted in Scotland, and although I've never been to Northern or Wales, I used to work retail and in pubs for years and I've been told plenty of times by folk from those countries that they know about Scottish and Northern Irish money and readily accept them without any issues. This thing with the notes also happens outside of the U.K. Twice while abroad I've had Royal Bank of Scotland notes and have tried to change them to the local currency and I was rejected because they weren't "British notes", even though they LITERALLY ARE AND STERLING JUST THE SAME AS THE BANK OF ENGLAND NOTES. * sigh *

I was once travelling to the USA and changed £100 into US$ at Chicago O'Hare. Back then, it should have given me $159 plus some small change. The American teller counted out $155 and then was supposed to count out the final 4 $1 bills but instead didn't look properly and gave me 4 more $10 bills. I didn't notice at all because I was jet lagged and she was counting quickly. When I got to my final destination, I looked properly and realised the exchange rate was VERY much in my favour for the time - $195 for £100!

The older pound notes are actually made from denim and not paper, also you can get special edition coins for example 50p coins sometimes have different pictures on like Paddington bear, and other fun pictures

Brits say "quid" due to its origins, possibly rooted in "quid pro quo" or linked to Quidhampton, a village in England with a Royal Mint paper mill. Its simplicity and distinctiveness made it popular, and it became synonymous with the pound sterling, gaining cultural significance over centuries.

Incidentally, bank notes are not actually money; they are merely representations of money, or tokens, showing an amount promised. All British bank notes (bills in the US) say on them "I promise to pay the bearer on demand the sum of [value of note]". Coins, on the other hand, are actual money.

The £20 and £50 notes have now also been replaced with plastic versions and the old paper ones went out of circulation at the end of last year. The new notes with King Charles have been released as designs but won't go into full circulation until next year and even then the versions with the Queen on will still be legal tender for some time after that.

Scotland accepts both english and Irish pound notes but england tends to only accept English notes

In the past in public toilets (bathrooms to an American) the doors to the cubicles had a coin slot which took an old penny to open the lock (not the urinals, they were free), so everyone always carried a few old pennies which were much larger than nowadays in case they needed to use a toilet, so the phrase "I need to spend a penny" meant I need to use the toilet. The term 'Pound Sterling' is used to differentiate between the pound in money terms and the pound as a measure of weight. Also, our standard for silver as in jewellery etc is 'Sterling Silver' Which is 92.5% silver + copper, this is to make it harder as silver is a rather soft metal and originally our silver coins were made from Sterling silver to the value of the coin, but that was ended in 1947 when money became devalued.

When visiting the US its easy to mix up the banknotes as they are so similar- whereas in the UK and other nations different colours are used to denote different denominations- blue for 5 and brown for 10

It's easier now it used to be 12 pennies to a Shilling and 20 shillings to a pound.

16:53 - "a lot of this is digital now" - this is the main reason why they got rid of the £100 note, Also burning money is not illegal in the UK (defacing it is though!) The band KLF famously burnt £1M back in 1994. As for the coins - they showed the layout of the coins that forms a shield. Also worth noting that only notes issued by the Bank of England are considered "legal tender" (other UK banks that issue their own notes do so under the Bank Charter). Coins are issued by the Royal Mint and they make local variations and special editions on the £1 & £2 coins. Also worth noting that coins from Guernsey, Jersey & Isle of Man (Sterling) are often used interchangeably, although not officially "legal tender" in the UK.

I recently heard the term 'In for a penny, in for a pound' on a US show, although wasn't sure of the exact meaning. There are a lot of collectors on here with the limited edition 50p coins featuring paddington bear, sherlock holmes and other imagery along with other collectables, including coins and notes from the US and elsewhere

They say the Scottish and the Northern Irish bank notes are legal tender, but you try talking one of those notes into a shop In England. They point blank refuse them, and say, ‘Its not legal tender’.

A £20 note can also get called a ‘score’. It’s from units of measure before £ notes were invented.

for a while there was an overlap where england had stopped using £1 notes but scotland still was, this did lead to a fun time when if you spent a pound note in england there was a good chance they would give you change as if you spent £5. the different currency is a hangover from before scotland joined the UK, scotland also has a separate legal system

The smallest note in the UK (outside of Scotland) is £5, which is about $6, so yes, coins get used more. Though these days, I almost never take any money out with me, because I know I can pay for everything with Apple Pay. King Charles notes will be coming out in the middle of next year. King Charles coins were apparently released about 3 months ago, though I haven't seen one, because I haven't paid for anything with physical cash in about the past 4 years.

You always have to have a pound coin in your purse/wallet to put in the supermarket trollies to release them. So yes, you definitely need them.

Fun fact: at some grocery stores, if you want a shopping cart, you have to put a pound coin in the trolly to release it from the row, you get the pound back when you return it, so you can't be lazy and just leave it anywhere 😉

we used to have half penny coins as well but they were removed in 1984, Treasury had argued that the halfpenny was important in the fight against inflation but were overruled

British pound sterling, sometimes known as the British pound (GBP), is the official currency of the United Kingdom (U.K.). It is commonly accepted that the Latin phrase "quid pro quo," which means "something for something" or an equal trade for goods or services, is the source of the 100-pence unit known as a quid.

There are a few US slang terns, dime and greenbacks come to mind. Canadians often call their dollars "loonies". I bought something in Vancouver and was told it was just a loonie, I had no clue what they meant!

"Spending a penny" dates from many years ago, when public toilets had locks which required you to insert a penny coin into them before you could open the door to enter. Also, they are wrong about being able to use Scottish or Northern Irish notes in England, it used to be acceptable to use Scottish notes, but is no longer, and shops in England have never accepted Northern Irish notes (As I know from personal experience, having travelled between Northern Ireland and England regulary at one time) Any Bank will exchange the notes for English ones however.

Pence is instead of saying Penny's, Quid is a slang term for Pound or Pound's for more than 1 pound. When my parents and grandparents were young, we had coins that are no longer used today like the old Penny (or Ship Penny), Halfpenny, Farthing, Threepence, Sixpence, Half Sixpence, Shilling, Crown, Half Crown, Florin, The One Pound was a Huge Note not a coin, and the coins were much bigger than they are now and different shapes these were changed over the years mainly to prevent forgery and the fact that some were pre Decimal and others Post Decimal coinage

Coins, you would keep in a purse which is a small bag. What you in America call a purse that ladies carry is called a handbag in Britain. The term 'to spend a penny' dates back to the days when to use a cubicle in a public toilet required a penny to be used in the coin-op door lock. Before 1971 when we changed the currency we used to have pennies, shillings and pounds so we a lot of different denominations of coins with coins with names like florins and half crowns. Back in those days I used to make up pay packets in cash and I can still tell you how to make up amounts of less that 10 shillings in the fewest number of coins. Amounts above that were covered by notes as we used to have pound and ten shilling notes.

£20 notes have been updated since that video. Charles currency hasn't appeared yet. Another security feature on top of the plastic windowed notes and holograms, they also have elements that light up under a UV light. You were correct, the different sizes of the notes are so that the sight impaired can easily differentiate the notes and they also have braille markings. She was wrong btw, the copper coloured coins are now steel, as a magnet would demonstrate. The newer 2 colour £1 coins were brought in as the old ones were so easy to counterfeit, it was thought that at one point, almost 50% of those in circulation were fake. Scottish money is not technically legal tender in England, but there is a standing agreement between the banks to exchange them. Never underestimate the number of names for British money. People of a certain age may still use terms from pre-decimalisation i.e. 5p can be called a shilling, or a bob. 50p is 10 bob etc. 10p is 2 bob, or a florin, but to be fair, you're likely to confuse anyone under 50 with those terms. Fortunately many other coins no longer exist, so they're unlikely to be confused by a tanner etc.

Put one of each British coin together and it makes a shield. You can buy the shield sets. Kazaa. EDIT: Beef tallow is used in the notes, so they are neither veggie nor vegan.

18:44 is because for public toilets you often have to pay to use them like at the beach on Weston Super Mare and it used to be 1 penny. In 1851 the Great Exhibition took place in Hyde Park, London. The refreshment rooms featured public conveniences for which a small charge was made. By the time the exhibition closed over 800,000 visitors had paid more than £2,000 for use of the facilities. And so was born the concept of ‘spending a penny’ to use the loo.

Many of our prices in England end at 99p so if you buy a magazine at £4.99 you would use 4 one pound coins, a 50p coin and a combination of 10p or 20p coins to get the £4.90 then use a 5p and 2p or 1p coins to make up the 9 pence which means that you don't end up with lots of pennies in your coin purse.

I think you will find old British money interesting 👍

I try and use cash as much as I can. I don't support a cashless society

The bank notes shown in the video are all Bank Of England issued sterling notes, but not everybody lives in England or uses those notes on a daily basis. In Scotland and the North of Ireland sterling currency notes are also issued by various banks and those notes circulate alongside the Bank Of England notes in those regions. Those non Bank Of England notes are generally not accepted in England. The Scottish and Northern Irish notes don't tend to feature the monarch's image. They are just as colourful as the Bank Of England notes but there is a certain inconsistency in the colours used. One bank's £5.00 note may be the same colour as another bank's £10.00 note.

The pre-decimal pound was divided into 240 pennies (12 pennies to shilling, 20 shillings to a pound). In saxon times, one pound of silver by weight was used to mint the 240 pennies. There was a fourpenny coin, made of silver as well, called a "groat". Until quite late on after the first world war, sixpence coins, shillings, florins (a two shilling coin), half-crowns and crowns were all made of silver. Until the pound was devalued in the 1940's there were 4 US dollars to the pound and it was common hear Londoners use the term "half a dollar" to mean half a crown as there were 4 crowns to each pound. "Half a dollar" was used a lot while I was a teenager.