£sd (pronounced, and sometimes written, LSD) was the popular name for the pre-decimal currencies used in the United Kingdom, and in most of its Empire and colonies. 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. Under this system there were 12d (12 pence) in a shilling and 20s (20 shillings) in a pound, making 240d in a pound.

As countries achieved independence from the UK, some (like the United States) abandoned the £sd system quickly, while others (like Australia) retained it almost as long as Britain itself, and still others, notably Ireland, decimalised only when Britain did. For much of the 20th century, £sd was the monetary system of most of the Commonwealth countries, the major exception being Canada. Historically, similar systems based on Roman coinage were also used elsewhere, for example for the division of the Livre tournois in France.

Writing conventions

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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) (a bob)

11d. (elevenpence)

1½d (a penny halfpenny, three halfpence – note that the f in halfpenny/halfpence was always silent, hence the occasional spelling "ha'pence")

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

2/- (two shillings, or one florin) (two bob)

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

5s. (five shillings) (one crown) (five bob)

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

£1.10s.- (one pound, ten shillings) (thirty bob)

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

A convention frequently used in retail pricing was to list prices over one pound all in shillings, rather than in pounds and shillings; for example, £4-18-0 would be written as 98/- (£4.90 in decimal currency).

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 (£1.05 in decimal currency).

See also

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

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

Currencies of the United Kingdom | History of Ireland | Numismatics