Ha! "Details--cut in half" Is that a thing? They might authenticate a cut one, I guess. I think the cut one was like $10 or less, so it wouldn't have made any sense to send it in.
“But I still have no clue about how it relates to Pence, Shilling, Pounds, etc.” Back in the day I was stationed in England when they were converting to the decimal system. Every one seemed confused on how it related, even worse was the six pence it was worth less than a five pence piece which equaled the old shilling
Yep. A shilling is 1/20th of a pound, so 5 new pence = one old shilling = 12 old pence. A 6 pence is half that, so 2.5 old pence.
Just to make it a little more complicated and confusing, you must concider the little old isle of Jersey where I live, 15 miles off the coast of France. We switched from French to English money in 1830, so our pennies were demonitated as 1/13th of a shilling, our halfpennies (or sous)1/26th of a shilling(illustrated), and farthings were 1/52 of a shilling.
Fortunately, they made a handy chart! "Comparative Value of English, Jersey, French, and Livres Tournois Currency, to which is added the Value of Rentes in Jersey, rendered in four currencies” Jersey, 1854. (Public Domain) (link: my blog post on Jersey coin denominations, in case anyone is interested)
Some institution, ie a bank was issuing currency - but in British Pounds in Jersey during the 19th century. Guernsey, Jersey and the Isle of Man all had nominal coinages early in the 19th century that were worth somewhat less than British sterling. Must have made trade betwixt the islands and Great Britain a bit of a challenge. Somewhere I have a small hoard of cut farthings from the reign of Henry II-Edward I, I'll have to find them and photograph them.
“My head hurts” If I remember correctly a pint of lager costed 2 shillings. My head hurt a lot also. then a brass 3 pence piece would come along, don’t even remember what that was good for
When I was there in 1973 for about a week or so, there were still a few of the old coins circulating around, as I seem to recall. I should have saved some but didn't.
My British Farthing collection https://en.numista.com/vous/vos_pie...me-uni&type=&comp=5&swap=3&grade=&date=&comm=
You people in Jersey sure like making interesting money. Went from 1/13th of a shilling to 1/12th of a shilling - actually an upgrade. Then they were minting 1/12th shilling coins dated 1945 into the early 1950s. And the coins were not boring like those unchanged "double" coins that kept the same boring and plain design for 140+ years. But I do like Guernsey banknotes better - especially the older ones.