Everyday Life in a Northumbrian Manor
All Manor of Things: An introduction to manors and their documents
Currency
Until the introduction of decimalisation on 15 February 1971, English money was calculated in pounds, shillings and pence. The table below explains the system in more detail and includes the symbols used, we have already seen some of these symbols in the earlier sections.
The abbreviations used for the monetary amounts are not expanded when typed into a transcription but left in their original format – li ; s ; d .
This order is always followed, so pounds will always come first, then shillings, then pence. If there are no pounds, the money would be given as shillings and pence.
Below we have included some images of the older coinage, to show what each coin would have looked like.
Activity - Test your knowledge
How many pounds, shillings and pence are there in the following fines?
Find the answers in the drop down below.
Note – £1 19 S 11 D is the maximum fine amount. It can also appear as 39 S and 11 D
