[geeks] Now for something completely geek

[Phil Stracchino]

Charles Shannon Hendrix wrote:
> What's funny is how much european currency is really based on the same
> ancient coinage, so really it really wasn't part of their heritage
> anyway.

Until Britain went metric in the mid-70s, the symbols used to denote
British currency in pounds, shillings and pence were L, s, d.  Sixpence
was written as 6d.  Many people weren't even aware that the symbol for
the pound was a stylized L, let alond know why d meant pence or that s,
although it was used to indicate a shilling, didn't *mean* shilling.


The actual meanings?  Librum, solidus, denarius.  The names of the units
of currency have changed, but the symbols used to denote them hadn't
changed in two thousand years.


-- 
 Same geek, same site, new location
 Phil Stracchino                     Landline: 603-429-0220
 phil.stracchino at speakeasy.net         Mobile: 603-216-7037
 Renaissance Man, Unix generalist, Perl hacker, Free Stater