17 Mar
1999
17 Mar
'99
8:43 a.m.
I gather the machine had some sort of support for
doing arithmetic on
pre-decimalized currency, does anyone here know what that looked like?
It wasn't explained very well in the book.
I don't know how the currency was handled on Leo, but as a reference for our
American friends I shall say a few words on British currency prior to 1971.
The basic unit was the pound. The symbol was the same as nowadays, viz. a
scripty capital L with two horizontal bars through it (though often only one bar
is written, for speed) On e-mail I generally use an ordinary L for pound (L
stands for Livre (french = pound))
King Offa (?9th century) fixed the value of a penny at 1/240 of a pound. Later
the shilling was fixed at 12 pence. (Pence is the plural of penny, in case you
hadn't worked it out. "Pennies" is a word coined much more recently (pun
intended))
So L1 = 20 s. (s stands for solidus (lat. = a silver coin of some sort) or sou
(Fr. = a coin worth not a lot))
1 s. = 12 d. (d stands for denarius (lat. = penny) or denier (fr. = penny))
Halfpence (pronounced ha'pence) were in use until 1969 (and re-introduced with
decimalisation in 1971).
Farthings (1/4 d) were in use at least until the mid 1940s, and may have been
required for Leo.
So to computerise the currency you probably need:
A field for whole pounds
A field for shillings (up to 19 with a carry at 20)
A field for pence (up to 11 with a carry at 12)
A field for farthings or ha'pence (up to the obvious numbers thereof)
It would not likely be possible to ignore the fractions of pence, since even as
late as the 1950s 1/2 d had a reasonable purchasing power, perhaps equivalent to
one US dime today.
Also, just as they do today, vendors loved prices ending ...nineteen shillings
and elevenpence ha'penny.
Philip.