The term £sd (pron. LSD) was the popular name for the pre-decimal currencies of many countries including the United Kingdom, Ireland, and many Commonwealth countries. Flag of the Commonwealth of Nations The Commonwealth of Nations is an association of independent sovereign states, most of which are former colonies once governed by the United Kingdom as part of the British Empire. ...

Meaning "pounds, shillings and pence" the term originated from the Latin "librae, solidi, denarii" hence the use of the hatched "L" (£) for pounds and "d" for pence. Similar systems based on Roman coinage were also used elsewhere, for example for the division of the Livre tournois in France. As a unit of currency, the term pound originates from the value of a Troy pound weight (Latin libra), of high purity silver, and is the currency unit of a number of countries: Cyprus pound in Cyprus Egyptian pound in Egypt Falkland Islands pound in the Falkland Islands Gibraltar pound... The shilling was a British coin first issued in 1548 for Henry VIII, although arguably the testoon issued about 1487 for Henry VII was the first shilling. ... Above: A variety of coins considered to be lower-value, including an Irish 2p piece and many US pennies. ... Latin is the language that was originally spoken in the region around Rome called Latium. ... Libra (♎, and Latin for balance) is a constellation of the zodiac. ... A solidus (the Latin word for solid) was originally a gold coin issued by the Romans. ... The Roman currency system included the denarius, a small silver coin, as the most common coin in circulation. ... The livre tournois (or Tournoise pound) was a currency used in France, named after the town of Tours, in which it was minted. ...

Writing conventions

In writing, there were several conventions for representing amounts of money in pounds, shillings and pence:

£2.3s.6d. (two pounds, three shillings and six [pence])

1/- (one shilling)

11d. (elevenpence)

2/6 (two shillings and six pence, usually pronounced as "two-and-six" or "half a crown")

2/- (two shillings, or one florin)

4s.3d. ("four-and-threepence")

5s. (five shillings)

14-8-2 (fourteen pounds, eight shillings and tuppence--in columns of figures).

Halfpennies and farthings (quarter of a penny) were represented by the appropriate symbol after the whole pence.

Sometimes prices of luxury goods and furniture were expressed by merchants in whole numbers of guineas, even though the guinea coin had not been in use for over 150 years. A guinea was twenty-one shillings.

See also

• Decimal Day for decimalisation in the UK and Ireland
• Decimalisation, for international decimalisation information.

• Pre-decimal British coinage
• Irish pre-decimal system