| Original Message: There is a nice story pertaining to this obtuse monetary system... |
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During the Second World War, Germans occasionally attempted to get some of theirs spies into the UK. They have never been too successful with that, though, and most of those spies have been caught very quickly. It is told that one such spy managed to get to Britain. He walked to the nearest town, visited a train station and asked for a ticket to London. He was told that it would cost "three and six", meaning three shillings and six pence. The spy, however, didn't give it a single thought and paid three pounds and six shillings (~20× more than needed). Of course, the police were already waiting for him when he got off the train (At least that's how I remember the story. The details are pretty hazy, and I don't even know where I read it. Maybe it didn't happen at all, but it's a nice story nevertheless...) By the way, I thought that one penny was the smallest possible amount of money in this system, but then I learnt that it could be subdivided even further. IIRC, 1/4 of a penny was called a farthing... |
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