What's the difference between a guinea and a pound?

Asked by elbanditoroso (33158

) May 15th, 2014

I’m reading a book that takes place in Great Britain in the 1920s. They make reference to guineas and pounds as money, but it isn’t clear to me what the difference is, and what eah was worth back then.

Any Brits here with a long memory?

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4 Answers

A guinea is a pound plus a shilling and was usually used to quote expensive prices in.

janbb (62875

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Here is a really good site showing the various relationships between English money both old and new.

rojo (24179

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Yes there were 20 shillings in a pound and 21 shillings in a guinea. It was an easy way of specifying more money, eg
“20 pound for the horse?”
“20 guineas and it’s yours”

Stinley (11525

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It’s a pound plus a shilling (5%). The extra shilling was the auctioneer’s fee. If an item was sold in auction for 20 guineas the seller received 20 pounds.

downtide (23815

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