Imagine your piggy bank is full of different kinds of coins that all look and feel completely different, like having a bunch of jellybeans, buttons, and rocks in one jar.
Predecimal currency is like that piggy bank. Instead of having just 10 cents or 20 cents coins, people used to have coins for amounts like 1 farthing, ½ penny, 1 penny, 3 pence, 6 pence, and even 1 shilling, which was equal to 12 pennies!
Why it felt like a nightmare
Imagine you’re buying candy that costs 5 pence, but you only have one 6 pence coin. You can't just hand the shopkeeper the 6 pence coin and get change back, it’s not as simple as using a modern coin machine.
You had to count out coins like little math problems, and sometimes you needed to give them multiple coins for just one small purchase! It was like trying to make a smoothie with only spoons, messy and confusing!
The big change
Then came the decimal system, where everything became easier. Instead of 12 pennies in a shilling, there were 100 cents in a dollar, just like how we count money today!
Examples
- Trying to buy a loaf of bread with 12 pennies when it costs 6½p
- Figuring out how much change you should get after buying two items in different denominations
- Adding up coins that don’t all have the same value
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See also
- How Does The Hidden History of Money in Medieval Europe Work?
- How Does The REAL History of Money Work?
- How Does The History of Money: Barter Work?
- How Does Ancient Currency Affect Modern Economics?
- How Does Ancient Coinage Influence Modern Currency?