Gathorall t1_j6f4qgv wrote
Reply to comment by Hattix in TIL coins in the UK almost always switch the way the monarch is facing with each monarch with King Charles III facing left. by AudibleNod
And that's in a holdover from when their worth was based on being of valuable metals, which was why old currency conversions seemed kinda arbitrary, manufacturing and handling determined the size and coins would then be worth whatever was the exchange rate of the material.
Hattix t1_j6f7bla wrote
It was kept around because it was how banks counted coinage you deposited. You'd have little plastic money bags (remember those?) with 1p/2p 5p/10p "NO MIXED COIN" written on them, the person at the desk (or Post Office) would just weigh it to save having to count it all out!
I remember my dad explaining to me in the 1980s that ones and twos didn't count as mixed coin after I'd separated them all out into different bags!
funkmachine7 t1_j6gqmva wrote
The old Carolingian monetary system of 1:20:240 and 1 being a pound mass of silver was the base for most of europes coinage.
The conversions where based on getting back to that pound of silver an so effected by purity an weight of the two coins.
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