Ancestors

Toot

Written by Rachel Stantz on 2024-10-09 at 22:59

I was trying to figure out why a guinea was worth 21 shillings. It's an odd number (literally and figuratively!) even for predecimal currency because it only has two factors, 3 and 7. That doesn't seem all that useful, though I suppose there are additional factors if you're willing to subdivide shillings into pence.

It turns out that historically a guinea was 20 shillings, or a pound, which of course is a nice round number. But the guinea was a gold coin on the silver standard, and its value fluctuated until Britain accidentally moved to the gold standard in 1717, at which point it was fixed at 21 shillings.

How do you accidentally move to the gold standard? Apparently it's Sir Isaac Newton's fault, because in his side job as master of the mint, he fixed the price of the guinea too high with regards to silver. So I guess the real answer to my question is: Because Isaac Newton got the math wrong. Everyone makes mistakes now and then.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guinea_(coin)

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Descendants

Written by midendian on 2024-10-09 at 23:31

@arjache jeeze. that guy.

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